Back when President Obama visited the Vatican in 2009, he was the rock star. This time it will be Pope Francis.
The press has focused on what the pope will say during today’s meeting about the president’s contraceptive mandate, or their common interest in addressing inequality. But a far more fruitful topic might be Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Before he became pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the Jesuit provincial in Argentina when the military junta was carrying out its dirty war. Bergoglio has been smeared by left-wing activists who say his silence made him complicit in the persecution of his fellow Jesuits.
But two new books and an Associated Press investigation, based on interviews with many people whose lives he saved at great risk to himself, say that Father Bergoglio is better thought of as Argentina’s Schindler. “He made me wonder if he really understood the trouble he was getting into,” recalls Gonzalo Mosca, then a 27-year-old radical on the run.
Bergoglio interceded at the behest of Mosca’s brother, a Jesuit priest. He hid him during a 20-mile trip to the Jesuit seminary, where he was sheltered for four days, until the future pope arranged a ticket to Brazil.
In short, this is a pope who has experience handling bullies when he was outgunned and had few good options. President Obama might be wise to take advantage of the pope’s experience — and ask him how he might deal with Putin.