The Modern Approach of Vatican Diplomacy to the Socio-Economic Inequalities in Latin America

Luković Jablanović Dragica (Visoka sportska i zdravstvena škola, Beograd), dragicalukovic@yahoo.com

Throughout the history of mutual relations, responses to Latin American socio-economic inequalities have occasionally led the Vatican and Latin America to opposite sides, as was the case in the second half of the 20th century with liberation theology. In the context of the centuries-old continuum of the Roman Catholic faith on the soil of Latin America, this deep-rooted and complex interrelationship, at the crossroads between social, economic, and political spheres, provided space for setting up the hypothesis: the approach of Vatican diplomacy towards the socio-economic inequalities of Latin America with the pontificate of Pope Francis experienced changes in relation to its previous positions. The research analysis is developed through the types and levels of connection of Vatican diplomacy with socio-economic and political developments in Latin America. Following that theoretical context, the scientific methods used in the work are historical-comparative, discourse analysis, analytical-synthetic method, content analysis, and case study method (Nicaragua). The results obtained from the mentioned scientific methods have confirmed that Catholicism is returning to the ideals of the Gospel through the planned and steady trend of modernising church dogma, which is advocated by Pope Francis as the leader of the moderately liberal current of Catholicism. In this way, Vatican diplomacy, through the operational efficiency of the fresh attitudes of Pope Francis, opens new, more humane social and economic paths for Latin America. The aim of the work is to assess the contribution of contemporary Vatican diplomacy to the mitigation of social and economic inequalities in Latin America and to encourage new effective solutions in that area.

Keywords: Pope Francis, Vatican, Holy See, diplomacy, liberation theology, social inequality.