'Bridges, not walls', the journeys of Pope Francis narrated by Ziantoni and Di Giacomo

Bergoglio has visited more than 65 countries in 47 apostolic journeys: from the first trip in 2013 to Rio de Janeiro to the one in Ajaccio on 15 December 2024

The Catholic Church, Pope Francis preached, must be like a field hospital ready to welcome and support anyone in need of help. A project, or rather a vocation, that has guided his entire pontificate. In twelve years, the Pope who came from the "end of the world", as he himself said to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square immediately after the announcement of his election, has pushed towards the geographical - and existential - peripheries hidden in every corner of the world. A commitment driven by the desire to make the Church 'leave' the Vatican palaces. Francis, in this sense, has given a good example: very often he has left Vatican City to bring the Gospel to the most distant countries and places. An experience recounted by Stefano Ziantoni, head of Rai Vaticano since October 2022, and by Don Filippo Di Giacomo in the volume 'Bridges, not walls. The 47 apostolic journeys of Pope Francis', published by Rai Libri.

"The international apostolic journeys undertaken by Pope Francis during his pontificate - we read in the introduction to the book - were fundamental stages in expressing the heart of his pastoral, spiritual and human message". In twelve years, the two authors recall, "Francis has visited more than 65 countries, bringing everywhere a testimony of mercy, dialogue, justice and attention to the existential peripheries of the world" . From his first trip in 2013, to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day, to the one to Ajaccio on 15 December 2024, Francis has always shown closeness to the 'last'. A pilgrimage that has taken him to Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America "often choosing destinations that were not included in the traditional circuits".

Francis's trips have also had a strong religious value, such as the one to the Holy Land in 2014 which took on "a strong ecumenical and interreligious value: his embrace with Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem became a symbol of the desire for rapprochement between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches". The book is therefore divided into the Pope's various apostolic trips and is accompanied by photographs that represent the salient moments. For each trip, moreover, the words of Francis are reported and the commentary of Don Filippo Di Giacomo who has been a Rai consultant for thirty years. Worthy of note, among the many, is the message that Pope Francis delivered to the Plenary Assembly of the United States Congress in Washington DC on 24 September 2015: "A nation can be considered great when it defends freedom, as Lincoln did; when it promotes a culture that allows people to 'dream' full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King tried to do".

Building bridges, as the book signed by Ziantoni and Don Di Giacomo testifies, was the true great mission of Pope Francis. Now the baton has passed to Pope Leo XIV who has taken up the challenge. During the first 'Urbi et Orbi' blessing, in St. Peter's Square last May 8, in fact, he said: "Help us also to build bridges with dialogue and with encounter, to be one people, to be at peace".