The pope, the islands, and the hypocrites

It is true that Pope Leo XIV has not visited the Balearic Islands, but it is no less true that the Archipelago has been present since the first day of his tour of Hispanic lands, thanks to the reference made by the President of Congress to the wise Ramon Llull: “Justice procures peace and injustice, war” is one of the memorable sayings of one of the most important figures in our history and of tremendous relevance. Well chosen.

We could also discuss whether it is legitimate or not for a religious leader to give a speech at the highest institution of popular sovereignty in the country, in a presumably secular state, where this would in any case be the umpteenth constitutional contradiction. I personally think that it is justified, both because Leo XIV is also a head of state, and because one does not need to be a believer to understand the important influence that religion continues to exert on society, albeit to a lesser extent than in other times. It would also be good for other international leaders to attend, and, why not, people not so well-known but who defend necessary causes, such as the right to housing. And it would be the height of perfection if no one were missing, and if everyone listened as they have done with the Pope, instead of abstaining as we see in many parliamentary debates with an empty hemicycle.

Because, in reality, all the politicians were lurking to see what they could use from the papal discourse, in Madrid, Barcelona or the Canary Islands, against the adversary or in favor of their own option, even those who were not there. Obviously, already in the first of the speeches, in Congress, Leo XIV made it clear that he is a man zealous for doctrine, and that he does not intend to question classical dogmas of the Catholic Church, such as opposition to abortion, nor to delve into controversial issues that may further weaken the institution he presides over, such as the issue of cases of child molesting priests.

However, Leo XIV is not a fundamentalist, nor a man of doctrine alone. The shepherds of the church of Rome do not usually choose their names arbitrarily, and he has chosen that of his predecessor Leo XIII, the initiator of the so-called 'social doctrine of the Church'. To put it in context, the encyclical Rerum Novarum is from the end of the 19th century, at the height of the labor movement, both in Europe and the United States. At that time, the clandestine American union of the Knights of Labor was the main organization of the labor movement in the country, with more than one million members, without distinction of sex, ethnicity, or beliefs. 

It was after the strikes of 1886 and the harsh repression of union leaders – which led to the celebration of May Day – in a climate of criminalization of workers' protests by the media and the powers that be, that Leo XIII aligned himself with the workers – given that many of the members of the Knights of Labor were Polish, Irish, and Italian immigrants, mostly Catholic – and wrote, in 1891, the Rerum Novarum

. An encyclical from such an old institution, but which even at that time said things as radical – and as current – as that “a very small number of rich and opulent people have imposed a yoke of almost slavery on an infinite multitude of proletarians”, or that private property could not go against the common good. Let everyone draw their own conclusions.

However, and despite the even artificial and excessively prepared staging of most of the events protagonized by the Pope these days (like party campaign events, or not?), the most relevant and transcendent is the alignment with the defense of migrants and their rights, and the denunciation of the racist and hateful policies and discourses that permeate politics in both Europe and the United States these days.

Policies and discourses very present in the Balearic Islands, and not always led by the party of “national priority” (entirely assimilable to the rhetoric of

Mein Kampf

!), but by others who claim to be orderly people and “good Christians”, but who do not hesitate to dehumanize migrants and sow the hatred that others sow, with the irresponsibility that this represents in the most multicultural territory of the State, which is the Balearic Islands.

Prevost has gone to the Canary Islands, but it is in the Balearic Sea where more than 500 people have lost their lives between January and May of this year alone, trying to reach our archipelago. I do not think the news has gone unnoticed by the pontiff, just as his reflections and prayers should not be barren for all those who so defend 'Christian' (and Western) values, whether from an institutional position or from a bar stool.