Pope Francis was unwittingly thrust into the center of a long-running diplomatic dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom after holding a sign calling for dialogue over the Falkland Islands.
Despite the controversy generated by Wednesday picture which showed Pope Francis holding a banner calling for dialogue between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, and later a spokesperson’s dismissal of the significance of the incidence, the best definition of what really happened seems to have come from Argentina’s cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez in his daily media conference, “the pontiff”, he said, spoke with his “low tone but strong voice”. He received the sign from Gustavo Hoyo, leader of a campaign for dialogue on the islands, during a papal audience.
The pope swiftly quashed the attempt to link him to the cause after his spokesman said the small poster was handed over during a weekly public gathering when lots of people give him things and he had no idea what the item was.
However, Hoyo told Argentina’s Clarin newspaper that “when [the Pope] passed by, I explained what this was about and he kindly took the placard and got the picture taken”.
Kissing babies is more straightforward.
In 2013, Kirchner asked Francis, who is Argentinian, to intervene to promote a dialogue between the countries. He has not, although as archbishop of Buenos Aires, prior to his ascendancy to Pope in 2013, he adopted a pro-Argentine stance on the matter.
In 2011, the pope – then known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio – told his followers “not to forget those who had fallen during the war” as they had “shed their blood on Argentine soil”.
In April, de Kirchner addressed an audience about Argentina’s claims to the Falklands, saying, as quoted in the Guardian, “We will see the islands form part of our territory again”.
In a 2013 referendum on whether the Falklands should remain a British overseas territory, 99.8 percent voted in favour. British forces retook the islands in a short war that cost more than 900 lives.