Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 91. Pope Francis sent a message of condolences to Gorbachev’s family.
(Vatican News Network)Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, died in a Moscow hospital on August 30 at the age of 91. Pope Francis sent a message of condolences to his daughter Irina Gorbachev the following day, expressing “spiritual concern” during this period of grief, and to the families of the deceased and all Those whom Erbachev considered a great statesman expressed “heartfelt condolences”.
In his message of condolence, the Pope wrote: “We remember with gratitude Gorbachev’s far-sighted efforts to achieve harmony and fraternity among peoples and his struggle for the development of his country during a time of great change. “On this occasion, I offer my prayers of condolence, asking the good and merciful God to grant his soul eternal rest.”
The widely respected former Soviet statesman and reformer has started a new course in relations with the Holy See, ending decades of religious persecution of the Catholic Church in the former Soviet Union. The milestone of this new process was Gorbachev’s historic meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on December 1, 1989, as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. At the time, less than a month following the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the year before, in 1988, Gorbachev had welcomed a high-ranking representative of the Church to Moscow at a celebration of the millennium of the Rus’ evangelization group.
During their 1989 Vatican meeting, St. John Paul II and Gorbachev shared their views on the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, and on the need for greater religious freedom in the Soviet Union and the need for renewed ethical and moral values, As well as improving the relationship between Catholicism and the Orthodox Church, there is a general consensus. The Pope and Gorbachev also agreed on the fact that Eastern European countries should not be expected to fully embrace Western values. Saint John Paul II said: “Some people claim that Europe is changing and that the world should follow the Western model. These statements are false. Europe, as a participant in world history, should breathe with two lobes of lungs.” The description of Western Europe as two lobes of lungs is a favorite metaphor of St. John Paul II. During the talks, the Polish-born pope also expressed concern regarding religious freedom in the Soviet Union and the Vatican’s relationship with various Orthodox and Catholic church groups, and received a cautious and positive response from Gorbachev.
Afterwards, Gorbachev visited the Vatican once more in 1990 as president of the Soviet Union. By then, his government had passed religious freedom laws, abolishing restrictions on churches and legalizing the Ukrainian Catholic Church following decades of persecution. Ten years later, he and St. John Paul II met once more in Rome, on the occasion of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates on November 13, 2000, the jubilee year. At the time, Gorbachev spoke to Vatican Radio reporters regarding many of the topics discussed at the summit and offered insights on the challenges of our time. His words still have prophetic significance to this day. In that interview, Gorbachev cautioned that “there are processes today that are not entirely toward disarmament, but toward the danger of nuclear proliferation.” Referring to the post-Cold War global order, he echoed the Pope’s statement that “a A more stable, more just and more humane world”.
Gorbachev was the last Soviet president before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. He has joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since the early 1950s, serving as general secretary of the party from 1985 to 1991 and president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. He introduced crucial political and economic reforms to the Soviet Union during his seven-year term, namely Reconstruction (Peretrojka) and Opening (Glasnost).
Gorbachev played a key role in ending the Cold War, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, which was popular in the Western world. But his situation in his home country was the opposite, with some Russians blaming him for the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Russia’s economic collapse in the 1990s.
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