President Michael D. Higgins was received by His Holiness Pope Francis, in an official audience in the Papal Library at the Vatican on Monday 22 May.
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The President traveled to Rome from Venice, where he attended the Biennale, the world’s largest and oldest international art exhibition. At the Biennale, the President visited the Irish pavilion and met with artist Jesse Jones and representatives from organisations involved in the exhibition, including Culture Ireland and the Arts Council.
In Rome, the President had a private meeting with Pope Francis, at which the two leaders discussed a wide range of issues of mutual concern, including migration; climate change; sustainable development; the failure to prevent ever increasing threats of conflict; global poverty; and the need to achieve social cohesion, values of solidarity and global responsibility in forthcoming discussions on the future of Europe.
The President and Pope Francis spoke of their shared conviction that new connections between ethics, economy and ecology must be at the core of all work of social and intellectual reconstruction in this new century. They also agreed that there can be no resolution to the issues we face without an engaged alternative to what the Pope has referred to as ‘the globalisation of indifference’.
Following the meeting with the Pope, the President had a meeting with Cardinal Parolin, the Secretary of State of the Vatican. In the afternoon, the President met with Irish clergy and lay staff working at the Vatican, at a reception at the Irish College in Rome.
5 июн 2017
