Pope Francis, known in his native Argentina for never leaving home, collected more frequent-flyer miles in 2019 than in any of the previous six years of his pontificate, traveling to Panama, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, Romania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Thailand and Japan. Though each trip had its own raison d’etre, there were three major themes, all among the top priorities of Francis’s pontificate, which were front and center.

Youth
Though Francis’s Jan. 23-27 visit to Panama was decided long before he was elected as Successor of Peter because it was hosting World Youth Day (WYD), a Vatican-sponsored youth festival that takes place every two or three years with the almost-mandatory presence of the pope, the visit nevertheless served as a testing ground for the lessons of the 2018 Synod of Bishops on the Youth. Francis defined WYD as a sign that “young Christians are the leaven for peace in the world,” and serve as a sharp contrast to today’s “sad” situation of confrontational nationalist feelings. “To see all the flags flying together, fluttering in the hands of young people, happy to encounter each other is a prophetic sign, a sign (that goes) against the tide of today’s sad tendency toward confrontational nationalist sentiments that erect walls, that close themselves off from universality, from the encounter among peoples,” he said.

He told the thousands gathered that God loves everyone, with their sins and imperfections, and that salvation comes through this love.

Interreligious dialogue
Though every trip in 2019 had an interreligious or ecumenical moment, arguably the most important came Feb. 3-5, when Francis visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and signed a declaration with the Grand Imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University on human fraternity.

second meeting with the Muslim Grand Imam of al-Azhar, he said, “Wrote a new page in the history of dialogue between Christianity and Islam and in the commitment to promote peace in the world on the basis of human brotherhood.” In this era, Francis said, when there is strong a temptation of discord between Christian and Islamic cultures, and to consider religions as sources of conflict, “we wanted to give a further, clear and decisive sign, that instead it is possible to meet, it is possible to respect and dialogue.”

“No violence can be justified in the name of religion,” he said. “We need to be vigilant lest religion be instrumentalized and deny itself by allowing violence and terrorism. I would like to emphasize religious freedom,” he said. “Without freedom, we are no longer children of God but slaves.” One cannot proclaim fraternity, Francis said, and then act in the opposite way.

Peace
Francis has been denouncing an ongoing and piecemeal third world war since the beginning of his pontificate, often choosing destinations that show this reality, such as his decision to go to the Central African Republic in 2015, Colombia in 2017, and Mozambique this year. Francis’s diagnosis of a piecemeal world war is hard to contest: In Syria, Russia, the United States and Turkey are fighting, in what many label a “civil war.” Peace has not come to Iraq, despite the alleged defeat of ISIS. Despite a peace treaty that ended a 50-year old civil war in Colombia, guerrilla movements continue to be active, and there are reports of Colombian guerrilla fighters in Venezuela, just as there have been allegations of Cuban military involvement in violent repressions in Nicaragua that began last year, after a civil uprising against the government of Daniel Ortega.

In Myanmar, the military continues to wage war against Rohingya Muslims, much like China continues to send Uighur Muslims to modern-day concentration camps. In Nigeria, Boko Haram continues its murderous activity, and there are also reports of other Islamic terrorist organizations waging a war against Christians in several African countries. The “Anglophone Crisis” in Cameroon, which began in 2017, left 234 dead in 2019.

These and other conflicts have been mentioned at some point by Francis. Yet nothing made his  “never again war, never again” call, echoing his predecessor Pope Paul VI, more powerful than his trip to Japan in November, when he visited Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the world’s only two cities to have experienced an atomic bomb.

“One of the deepest longings of the human heart is for security, peace and stability,” Francis said in Nagasaki, visibly moved. Francis condemned not only the use but also the possession of nuclear weapons as “immoral.”