Papal appeal to world leaders

Merkel, Biden and president Higgins among VIPs attending.

HE asked them to be protectors. He asked them to think of those in need of our help. He asked them to consider the environment.

During his homily, Pope Francis made the direct pleas to world leaders, heads of states and the 132 official delegations in attendance.

He made clear he wants his pontificate to be focused on the poor, a message that has resonance in a poverty-stricken region that counts 40% of the world’s Catholics.

In the VIP section was German chancellor Angela Merkel and US vice president Joe Biden. President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina represented the State and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan represented the Government.

Also present was the Argentine president Cristina Fernandez, Taiwanese president Ying-Jeou Ma, Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, prince Albert of Monaco and Bahrain prince Sheik Abdullah bin Haman bin Isa Alkhalifa, among others. Six sovereign rulers, 31 heads of state, three princes and 11 heads of government attended. Francis directed his homily to them, saying: “I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.”

Among the religious VIPs attending was the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Bartholomew I, who became the first patriarch from the Istanbul-based church to attend a papal investiture since the two branches of Christianity split nearly 1,000 years ago.

Also attending for the first time was the chief rabbi of Rome. Their presence underscores the broad hopes for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue in this new papacy given Francis’ own work for improved relations and St. Francis of Assisi.

In an indication of his devotion to the Virgin Mary, which is common among Latin American Catholics, Francis prayed by a statue of the Madonna at the end of the service.

After the Mass, Francis stood in a receiving line to greet each of the government delegations, chatting with each one, kissing the few youngsters who came along with their parents and occasionally blessing a rosary given to him.