Against populism: Pope Francis' theology of the Mediterranean

Pope experts are of the opinion that a pope's first trip sets the direction of his pontificate. The popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis show whether this thesis is correct. John Paul II's first trip in 1979 took him to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the Bahamas. The focus was on Our Lady of Guadalupe, before whose image he knelt and to whom he prayed for assistance and protection for his pontificate. In fact, the Blessed Mother is a recurring theme throughout his time as head of the Catholic Church, especially as he placed his term of office under the motto "Totus Tuus" from the very beginning, which translates as "All Yours". Benedict XVI also demonstrates the validity of this thesis. With his first journey, a domestic trip to the XXIV National Eucharistic Congress in Bari, the German Pope placed theological matters more in the foreground. The Polish and German popes were finally followed by Pope Francis, who comes from Argentina. Right at the beginning of his pontificate, he visited the refugee island of Lampedusa, drawing attention to those living on the margins of society - migrants - and insisting on hospitality, encounters with others and dialogue.

During his pontificate, Francis repeatedly addressed the topic of migration, spoke out in favour of refugees and also clashed with politicians, particularly with the populist coalition of Five Star and Lega parties that governed Italy in 2018, in which the right-wing nationalist Matteo Salvini was Minister of the Interior. At the time, no ships carrying migrants and refugees rescued from distress at sea were allowed to enter Italian harbours. Salvini accused the Pope of promoting the "globalisation of illegality" in response to Francis' call against a "globalisation of indifference". In his speech on Lampedusa in 2013, which was widely criticised by Salvini and populists, the pontiff spoke of a lack of orientation: "We no longer pay attention to the world in which we live, we do not preserve and protect what God has created for everyone, and we are no longer even able to care for one another. If this disorientation takes on global proportions, great tragedies will occur," said Francis - alluding to the newspaper headlines at the time, which repeatedly reported on the deaths of migrants. Two years later, in 2015, he posed the question of whether migrants were second-class citizens in Naples and spelt out a "Mediterranean theology" in his speech. For him, the Mediterranean is the cradle of civilisation, connecting Africa, Asia and Europe, East and West, different cultures, religions and philosophies. It is therefore unacceptable for such an area to become a mass grave.

In 2021, the pontiff inaugurated a memorial in the Sicilian city of Syracuse, off the coast of which many people drowned when a boat carrying migrants sank in 2015. He repeatedly described the Mediterranean as the "largest cemetery in Europe". Two years later, in 2023, the head of the Church then travelled to the "Mediterranean Meeting" in September in the southern French port city of Marseille, a city that is synonymous with immigration. The majority of the approximately 870,000 inhabitants have foreign roots, all three monotheistic religions and Buddhism are present here - Muslims, Christians, Jews and Buddhists live together in a very small area. The Pope had already travelled to Bari for the first "Mediterranean Meeting" in 2020 and was unable to attend the second meeting in Florence in 2022. Bishops, representatives of various religions and, above all, many young people from over thirty countries met in Marseille. They all live in the Mediterranean region and have one thing in common: similar challenges posed by migration.

Mediterranean diversity as an example for the rest of the world

But what does all this have to do with the "theology of the Mediterranean", the so-called Mediterranean Magisterium of Pope Francis? The French cleric Patrice Chocholski, Director of the Catholic Mediterranean Institute in Marseille, tried to provide an answer. In an interview with "Vatican News", he explained that such a theological network of various Mediterranean meetings is relatively new. It brings the idea of dialogue into theology in a new way, the priest emphasised. In Marseille in particular, inspiration was drawn from a Trappist, Christian de Chergé, who died in Algeria and who posed the question of the peoples of the Mediterranean region, in particular the Islamic peoples. For this reason, they are working on a Catholic school of dialogue with partners in the Mediterranean region - from Lebanon to Iraq, in Naples, Bari, Rabat in Morocco, Pisa, and also with academics in Haifa, Cairo and Barcelona. There are also contacts with Jewish theologians and Muslim researchers, as well as personalities from the agnostic and atheist world. The dialogue challenges them, he said, and the Mediterranean plurality has a lot to say to the rest of the world, above all offering opportunities for peace.

In Marseille, Francis spoke of a "crossroads of civilisation" between fraternity and indifference. "Let us not get used to seeing shipwrecks as headlines and the dead at sea as mere numbers," warned the head of the Church in the southern French coastal city in front of representatives of various religions and aid organisations. It was names and family names, stories and histories, destroyed lives and shattered dreams that had drowned with their hopes in fear. The Pontiff criticised the fact that rescue ships were often not allowed to set sail, which he described as "gestures of hatred" on the part of populists. It is a duty of humanity, a duty of civilisation, to save people who are in danger of drowning. The three monotheistic religions of the Mediterranean in particular were characterised by their hospitality, by their love for strangers, which was indispensable if we dreamed of a prosperous future.

The Pope's Mediterranean theology is therefore nothing other than lived plurality and dialogue in many respects. This becomes particularly clear at the Mediterranean meetings in Bari, Florence and Marseille. For some years now, another Mediterranean theological meeting has been held every year in Rijeka, Croatia, under the leadership of Archbishop Mate Uzinic. For several years now, these ecumenical and interreligious meetings have demonstrated that dialogue between Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Protestants and other religions is also possible in the Balkans, which were divided after the Yugoslavian war in the 1990s - contrary to what nationalist and populist movements, whether in Italy, France or Croatia, believe. Uzinic himself warned in a speech that the crisis of faith would not be solved by retreating. This also includes going to the periphery, as Francis spelt out in his encyclical Evangelii Gaudium.

Timothy Radcliffe, a Dominican theologian from Oxford and former head of the Dominican Order, also underlined the importance of the churches' commitment when he pointed out that the churches would disappear if they closed themselves off to dialogue. They should therefore be "a model of life-giving hospitality in our chaotic world", said Radcliffe at the Mediterranean meeting in Rijeka last summer. The Mediterranean region in particular is not only the scene of conflicts, but also a place of encounter. This includes the hospitality and openness to transformation repeatedly emphasised by Pope Francis. Friendship draws closer to the identity of the other, but never leaves the individual as they are, said the theologian from Oxford, whose thoughts were also discussed two months later in Marseille: Marseille, characterised by a colourful pluralism, was at a crossroads between encounter and confrontation, according to the pontiff. However, it is not just Marseille, Bari, Florence, Naples or Rijeka that are facing this question, but the Church as a whole. It can be a "mosaic of hope", said Francis, if it is open to dialogue. This is sometimes also the answer to the increasingly strong extremist positions, nationalism and populism that are becoming ever louder, especially after the European elections.