The EU, Greece and the Pope

The articles below are taken from Alexis Tsipras Website and reveal the close relationship between the new leader of Greece and the Pope. This, along with the issues between the EU and Greece are of interest. These articles go back to September of last year, but worthy of mention now in the face of the rapidly evolving situation in the EU:

A Meeting That Carries Multiple Symbolisms At A European Level

For the first time ever the head of the Catholic Church will meet a leader of the radical Left. At the meeting, the agreed upon agenda focuses on the major issue of world peace and the need for initiatives taken to ward off war conflicts, the issue of migration especially after the humanitarian tragedies in the Mediterranean as well as the necessary actions for the protection of the environment

Pope Francis meets With Alexis Tsipras - The Vatican, Rome

In our meeting with Pope Francis today -who is often referred to as “The Pope of the Poor”- we had the opportunity to discuss the economic crisis, as well as the crisis in human values. To discuss the need for politics to re-inspire people in values which are collective, universal and substantive instead of the currently pre-dominant values of profit and material consumption.

We discussed the need for peace to return on earth, for the immediate cease of war interventions, the need for solidarity’s rehabilitation as a value, and the need to speak about the significance of making sure that people always count more than profits.

We pleaded with him to continue struggling against poverty and to speak in behalf of the dignity of humans as well as the structural causes behind poverty which are the inequality in the distribution of wealth and the rampant behavior of the financial markets.

We asked him to take an international initiative for the termination of conflicts in the Middle East and the Ukraine; we discussed the issue of migration that enormous plague of our times and the need for a revision of the European migration policy which generates humanitarian crises in the Mediterranean.

Finally, we agreed that the dialogue between the Left and the Christian Church must go on. We may have different ideological starting points; however, we converge on common values, like solidarity, love for the fellow Human being, social justice, and our concern regarding world peace.