How Pope Francis Shifted the Catholic Church’s Foreign Policy Toward the Global Periphery

When Pope Francis first appeared on the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica after his election 12 years ago, he said he had been chosen almost from the “end of the world.” He was the first non-European pontiff since Gregory III, elected in AD731, who was of Syrian origin, and the first pope from Latin America. The source presents this background as more than a biographical detail, arguing that his papacy shaped a Catholic Church less focused on Europe and more oriented toward the world’s peripheries.

Before his election, Jorge Mario Bergoglio had served since 1998 as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, where he worked to expand and support priests serving in the city’s slums. The source notes that the Church had maintained a presence in Buenos Aires’s peripheries since the 1960s, when a group called Priests for the Third World established itself in impoverished neighbourhoods. Those priests advocated for their parishioners’ rights and preached liberation theology, a movement that aligns the Church with marginalised groups. Days before his election, Francis told the cardinals who chose him that the Church must “come out of herself” and go to the peripheries, “not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries.”

The source says Francis had a complex relationship with liberation theology. Some interpretations of the movement, which gained prominence in the late 1960s, incorporated Marxist elements, raising concerns within the Church hierarchy and among Western governments during the Cold War. As a young Jesuit, Bergoglio was influenced by the 1969 Declaration of San Miguel, which rejected Marxist interpretations and developed an alternative called the “theology of the people,” emphasising the faith and culture of ordinary people, especially the poor.

The source also describes a contested period from 1976 to 1983, when Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship. Bergoglio, it says, distanced himself from radical priests engaged in liberation theology and sought not to alienate the military hierarchy. This caution led to tensions, most notably over the 1976 abduction of two Jesuits, Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics. Bergoglio was accused of withdrawing his protection from the priests, which allegedly left them exposed to the regime. In 2005, a secret dossier was anonymously circulated among cardinals accusing him of complicity in the abduction, based on a complaint by human rights lawyer Marcelo Parrilli. Some sources claimed the dossier was a smear campaign orchestrated by Jesuits who had clashed with Bergoglio. In his testimony, Bergoglio stated that he met twice with the dictators and military members Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera to intercede on behalf of the detained priests. The Vatican denied that he was guilty of any wrongdoing. The source says that despite his cautious stance, Bergoglio consistently upheld the Church’s priority of addressing the needs of the poor, a principle that later defined his papacy. [Proverbs 31:8-9]

As pope, the source reports, Francis softened the Vatican’s earlier opposition to liberation theology, reaffirming its emphasis on social justice while distancing it from Marxist rhetoric. It contrasts his approach with that of his predecessor, Joseph Ratzinger, who had maintained a deep engagement with Europe as a theologian, cardinal and, later, as Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict’s papacy included many visits across the continent and significant speeches on the Church’s role in Europe.

The source identifies one of Benedict’s speeches, delivered at the University of Regensburg in Germany in 2006, as especially controversial. It states that the lecture explored Europe’s relationship with Christianity and its future responsibilities, but that it became widely criticised for a quotation from Manuel II Palaiologos, a Byzantine emperor who characterised aspects of Islam as violent. The remark provoked anger and protests across the Muslim world, highlighting the sensitivities surrounding interfaith dialogue.

By contrast, the source says, Francis taught that Christians must go “beyond the walls” to embrace humanity as a whole. In his vision, the Church should function as a “field hospital,” extending care even to the “churches of the decimal point,” those with only a tiny percentage of Catholics relative to the populations among which they exist. Under his leadership, the source reports, the Vatican’s geopolitical focus shifted significantly. The composition of the College of Cardinals, which will elect his successor, has changed, and the historic European influence has been diluted.

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