President Donald Trump’s historic meeting with Kim Jong Un on Sunday received unexpected praise from Pope Francis.
Trump became the first sitting U.S. president in history to step into North Korea this weekend, where he greeted the North Korean leader with a handshake. The pope said he was praying that the encounter would lead to peace, according to the Daily Mail, and hailed the goodwill shown by the two “protagonists.”
“In the last few hours we saw in Korea a good example of the culture of encounter,” the pontiff said at his weekly address and blessing to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square. “I salute the protagonists, with a prayer that such a significant gesture will be a further step on the road to peace, not only on that peninsula, but for the good of the entire world.”
Surprising praise
When Francis speaks about Trump, it is usually to rebuke him — a tone not unfamiliar to the mainstream media. The pontiff has condemned President Trump’s immigration policy, especially his separation of migrant families, as heartless and un-Christian.
Although the pope’s views on immigration may happen to coincide with those of CNN, he clearly does not share the media’s vulgar, knee-jerk opposition to the president. While Francis was congratulatory and hopeful about Trump’s epochal handshake, the establishment media largely panned it as another “photo-op.”
Those downplaying Trump’s peace-making efforts felt validated earlier this year when Trump walked away from a summit with Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam without reaching an agreement. But Trump’s three-day tour of Asia this weekend reached a dramatic ending when he agreed to resume nuclear talks with Kim after stepping through the demilitarized zone (DMZ) into North Korea, becoming the first sitting American president to ever do so.
“This has a lot of significance because it means that we want to bring an end to the unpleasant past and try to create a new future, so it’s a very courageous and determined act,” Kim told Trump through a translator.
Changing the narrative
The pope’s description of Trump and Kim as “protagonists” seeking peace strikes a much different tone than the dominant media narrative. Trump has been criticized for “cozying up” to Kim, and the relationship between the two eccentric leaders has been described by Trump’s critics as a natural bond between like-minded authoritarians.
In contrast with the media’s stubborn pessimism, Pope Francis has repeatedly pleaded for peace on the Korean peninsula. The pope has said he would visit North Korea if it would advance peace.
“Through patient and persistent efforts, the pursuit of harmony and concord can overcome division and confrontation,” Francis said in April.
North Korea is considered the leading persecutor of Christians in the world. Christians in the authoritarian atheist state have been forcibly converted from their faith and even executed.
Nevertheless, Catholics in South Korea have called for reconciliation on the peninsula. A mass of 20,000 Catholics prayed for forgiveness near the DMZ at mass last week, according to the Catholic Herald.
“When I visited Pyongyang in 2011, the top officials in North Korea emphasized that the best way to keep the peace on the Korean Peninsula is not to be a state-of-the-art weapon or nuclear missile,” Archbishop Hee-Jung Kim, Chairman of the Korean Catholic Bishops’ Conference told the congregation, “but a mutual trust through forgiveness and reconciliation.”
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