Pope Francis lauds Cardinal Bertone, calls for solidarity in international diplomacy
November 12, 2013
In a lengthy foreword to a newly published collection of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s writings, Pope Francis paid tribute to the man who served as Secretary of State from 2005 until October 15 of this year.
The book, entitled La diplomazia pontificia in un mondo globalizzato [Papal Diplomacy in a Globalized World], includes 43 of Cardinal Bertone’s speeches and other texts written between September 2006 and June 2013. At a Vatican press conference on November 12, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Secretary for Relations with States, will be joined by a former president of the European Parliament and a law professor at the Pontifical Lateran University in introducing the book.
In the foreword, signed on September 14, Pope Francis praised Cardinal Bertone’s “calm and mature experience as a servant of the Church,” affability, hard work, “jovial personality,” intellectual and cultural background, and “serene inner strength that recalls the words of the Apostle: ‘far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’”
“The profound crisis of beliefs, of values, of ideas offers diplomatic activity a new opportunity, which is at the same time a challenge,” Pope Francis added as he called for an ethic of solidarity in international diplomacy and lamented an international cooperation that is the “fruit of utilitarian egoism.”
“It is not enough to prevent injustice if you do not promote justice,” he continued. “It is not enough to protect children from abandonment, abuse, and maltreatment, if you do not educate youth for a full and free love for human existence in its diverse phases, if you do not give families all the resources they need to accomplish their essential mission, if there is not promoted through all of society an attitude of acceptance and of love for the life of each and every one of its members.”
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