Vatican Diplomatic Work

The Vatican maintains diplomatic relations with most of the countries in the world and as seen from the Pope’s planned meetings with Muslim leaders, plays a large role on the world policy stage.

Pope John Paul II worked closely with President Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to hasten the downfall of communism and many credit the Polish Pope’s role as central to that successful effort.

The Church's Diplomacy Has a Fixed Star: That of the Magi
In the new year address to the diplomatic corps, Benedict XVI took stock of the Vatican's politics in the world. But to the faithful, at the Mass of the Epiphany, he said much more. He preached his theology of history – and here it is
by Sandro Magister

ROMA, January 8, 2008 – The Monday after the Epiphany, in the Sala Regia of the Apostolic Vatican Palace, pope Benedict XVI delivered to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See the traditional inaugural address for the new year.

In addresses like this, observers find a synthesis of the Church's geopolitics. And in effect, the text that the pope read to the diplomats was the painstaking product of the Vatican offices that handle relations with states and with international bodies.

But at the end of the address, the personal touch of Benedict XVI was unmistakable. With these words:

"Diplomacy is, in a certain sense, the art of hope. It lives from hope and seeks to discern even its most tenuous signs. Diplomacy must give hope. The celebration of Christmas reminds us each year that, when God became a little child, Hope came to live in our world, in the heart of the human family."

It's a dizzying leap from the arts of diplomacy to that "little child" who is Jesus. And yet it is entirely here – according to Benedict XVI – that is found the original mission of the Church, its vision of the world, its theology of history.

The pope gave the diplomats just a fleeting glimpse of this grandiose vision.

But twenty-four hours earlier, preaching to the faithful in the homily for the Mass of the Epiphany that he celebrated in the basilica of Saint Peter, Benedict XVI unfolded this vision in its entirety, with a power of synthesis and imagination that is, perhaps, unequalled in his previous preaching.

The Magi who found Jesus by following the star – the pope said – did the opposite of what happened at Babel. The Epiphany is already Pentecost. It is the blessing of God, who saves and reconciles men and nations. In the child of Bethlehem, the "last times" have begun. The Church "fulfills its mission completely only when it reflects in itself the light of Christ the Lord, and so helps the peoples of the world along the way of peace and authentic progress."

The pope delivered the homily in Italian, and the Vatican offices have not provided any translations into other languages. And yet this is a text of capital importance for understanding this pontificate, a text without which the address to the diplomatic corps on Monday, January 7 remains halting and incomprehensible.

Here, from the first word to the last, is the homily of Benedict XVI at the Mass celebrated in Saint Peter's basilica on January 6, 2008, the feast of the Epiphany:

"We all need the courage of the Magi..."

by Benedict XVI

Dear brothers and sisters, today we celebrate Christ, the light of the world, and his revelation to the nations. On Christmas the message of the liturgy resounded in this way: "Hodie descendit lux magna super terram," today a great light descends upon the earth (Roman Missal). In Bethlehem, this "great light" appeared to a small nucleus of persons, a miniscule "remnant of Israel": the Virgin Mary, her husband Joseph, and some shepherds. A humble light, as is the style of the true God; a little flame kindled in the night: a fragile newborn baby, wailing away in the silence of the world... But that hidden, unobserved birth was accompanied by the hymn of praise of the celestial choirs, who sang of glory and peace (cf. Luke 2:13-14).

Thus that light, as modest as its appearance upon the earth was, blazed forth powerfully in the heavens: the birth of the King of the Jews had been announced by the appearance of a star that was visible from very far away. This was the testimony of "some Magi" who had come from the East to Jerusalem shortly after the birth of Jesus, at the time of King Herod (cf. Matthew 2:1-2).