Chile’s president offers warm welcome to Pontiff

January 17, 2018

Saying “we open the doors of Chile to a friend,” President Michelle Bachelet offered a warm welcome to Pope Francis during a meeting at La Moneda Palace.

Bachelet served her first term as president from 2006 to 2010. Her second term began in 2014 and concludes in March.

The Chilean leader recalled that St. John Paul II’s 1987 visit to the nation shone a spotlight on a “wounded nation,” one that lack political freedom. Bachelet heralded the progress made toward democracy in the years following the end of the military dictatorship (1973-1990).

Bachelet paid tribute to the Pope’s commitment to dialogue and peace, to his willingness to speak out against injustice and inequality, and to his encyclical on ecology, Laudato si’.

She also described the papal visit as a “privilege” and “act of gratitude” for papal mediation in the Beagle conflict with Argentina (1979-84), for the Church’s commitment to “human rights, to public freedoms, to social rights,” for Catholics who “gave their lives to protect those who were persecuted in our country,” and for the work of bishops and priests today.

“Welcome, Pope Francis,” she concluded. “Chile, our home, is open to our friend.”

 

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Further information:

• Pdta. con el Papa Francisco: “No olvidamos a la Iglesia comprometida con los DD.HH, con las libertades públicas, con los derechos sociales” (Gobierno de Chile)