the Pope meets Emmanuel Macron this Friday for the 5th time
In Puglia (Italy), this Friday June 14, 2024, Pope Francis will meet for the fifth time, President Emmanuel Macron. This is the first time, under the Fifth Republic, that a pope has met so many times with a French president.
At the invitation of Italy and Giorgia Meloni, its President of the Council, Pope Francis is invited, this Friday, June 14, 2024, to the G7 summit, in the seaside resort of Borgo Egnazia in the south of the Italian peninsula. This is the first time that a pope has been invited to the meetings of the G7, this group of seven global economic heavyweights.
An intense diplomatic day
At 87, Pope Francis plans to meet many world leaders. Starting with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, with whom he spoke at the start of the afternoon. For several years, the two men have maintained a special bond. Not hesitating to speak informally, the two leaders like to discuss without taboo, in a direct manner. The head of state, who is quite tactile by nature, gets along well with a pope who, with his warm Argentine temperament, is just as warm. Despite their differences, especially on the delicate subject of the end of life, Francis and the French president have already met five times, the last time in Marseille, in 2023. A record under the Fifth Republic.
There is still much unknown about the content of the discussions, but a probable exchange took place on global geopolitics, particularly in the Holy Land and Ukraine, the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris, and the French political situation. This Friday morning, however, none of these themes had been previously confirmed by the Holy See press room.
Other meetings are also planned. The Pope will meet at their request with several leading personalities. He will first speak with Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and then with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Discussions with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Kenyan President William Ruto are also on the agenda.
Likewise, Francis will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss Hindu persecution against local Christians. Poverty, world peace and ecology will be at the heart of discussions between the Holy Father and American President Joe Biden, before discussing the future of the Amazon with Lula da Silva, the Brazilian leader. Finally the day will end with an audience granted to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on religious fanaticism in his country. He will do the same with the Algerian president, following the beatification, in 2018, of the monks of Tibhirine, murdered in 1996.
For a more ethical and transparent AI
Pope Francis also spoke before the session open to non-member states of the G7. At the request of Giorgia Meloni, he mentioned artificial intelligence (AI). The head of the Italian government intends to take advantage of the Pope's theological and philosophical thought to promote it, particularly after the “Rome Call for AI Ethics in 2020” (in English, Rome Call for AI Ethics) , promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life. An implementation of the “concept of algorithmethics, that is to say giving ethics to algorithms” for more transparency and respect for private life. For Giorgia Meloni, “the presence of the Pope will make a decisive contribution to the definition of a regulatory, ethical and cultural framework for artificial intelligence”.