Pope Francis Quotes
Division within a Christian community is a very grave sin; it is the work of the devil.
Pope Francis. "General Audience." The Holy See, 27 Aug. 2014, www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2014/documents/papa-francesco_20140827_udienza-generale.html.
He works were banned and he was banished by both the North Vietnamese and the South Vietnamese during the Vietnam War where he tried to be a mediator and was present at the Paris Peace Talks. As late as 2007 he was still not allowed into Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was raging and the country was polarized by it. The real issue of the time, as we were in the war, was whether we could better obtain peace by winning victories in the field causing the enemy to want to negotiate or to withdraw and produce peace unilaterally. In the end we tried a little of both reflecting the division in the nation. We succeeded at neither strategy and the polarization continued for many decades.
Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century.
