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Pope Leo XIV has called on the world’s mega-rich to make use of their wealth to assist those in need during a visit to Monaco.
Leo flew in on a helicopter for the one-day trip to the world’s second-smallest state, the primary papal visit there in nearly 500 years.
The Vatican said he wanted to point out that small countries could make an outsized impact on the world stage.
The glitzy enclave on the French Riviera is often called a haven for billionaires and their luxury yachts
Speaking in French shortly after his arrival, Leo condemned what he termed the widening ‘chasms between the poor and the wealthy’.
Leo, the primary American-born pope, was greeted on the Monaco heliport by Prince Albert and Princess Charlene.
On the palace, members of the royal family stood within the courtyard waiting for Leo, the ladies wearing black and with lace head coverings.
Charlene wore white — a protocol privilege granted by the Vatican to Catholic royal sovereigns when meeting popes, known in diplomatic terms as ‘le privilège du blanc’.
In his opening greeting from the palace balcony, Leo urged Monaco – which has the best concentration of billionaires per capita on the earth – to make use of its wealth, influence and ‘gift of smallness’ for good.
It was vital, he said, ‘especially at a historical moment when the display of power and the logic of oppression are harming the world and jeopardising peace’.
Later within the cathedral, Leo urged Monaco’s Catholics to spread their faith ‘in order that the lifetime of every man and woman could also be defended and promoted from conception until natural death’.
Such terms are utilized by the Vatican to confer with Catholic teaching opposing abortion and euthanasia.
Monaco is one in every of the few European countries where Catholicism is the official state religion.
A coastal playground for the wealthy and famous, Monaco can also be renowned as much for its tax-friendly incentives and Formula 1 Grand Prix as its glamorous royal family.
The principality’s casinos – 4 – are only narrowly outnumbered by its five churches.
Leo’s events in Monaco were marked by all the same old protocol and pomp of a papal tour abroad.
Crowds, nonetheless, were relatively thin.
Few lined the streets as he toured the 0.8 square mile country in an open-air popemobile.
Leo was elected in May to succeed the late Pope Francis as head of the 1.4-billion-member Church.
His visit to Monaco is just his second outside Italy, but opens what is predicted to be a busy yr of travel.
Leo, 70, is comparatively young and in good health for a pope.
He’ll undertake an ambitious, four-country tour of Africa in April, and can also be on account of make a week-long visit to Spain in June.
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