Pope Francis receives former president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff – World

• Photo: Guglielmo Mangiapane/ Reuters

Pope Francis

Pope Francis received this Saturday in a special audience at the Vatican the former president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff, current president of the BRICS development bank, a bloc initially formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa which joined in January past several other developing countries. At the end of the audience, Francisco said goodbye to Dilma saying “pray for me and I will pray for you”, and she replied “I am praying”.

At the meeting, in which they both spoke in Portuguese and Spanish, the Supreme Pontiff and the former Brazilian president, removed from office in the middle of her second term in 2016 in a maneuver engineered by her then vice-president, Michel Temer, who succeeded her, the two They spoke about international affairs and the relationship between them. Dilma was the first head of state to receive Francisco, during his trip to Brazil in 2013, after he became Pope, and the leader of the Catholic Church received her this Saturday with a wide smile and the phrase, “welcome, What a pleasure to see you again.

According to Dilma, who currently lives in Shanghai, the city in China where the bank she presides is based, she and the Pope discussed some of Humanity’s greatest current challenges. Among them, she highlighted, the fight against hunger and inequality, the energy transition and the measures necessary to face climate change.

The former ruler, the first woman elected head of state in Brazil in 2010, and re-elected in 2014, offered the Pope the book “Teodoro Sampaio – Nos sertões e na Cidade”, by writer Ademir Pereira dos Santos, and Francisco reciprocated with the encyclical “Laudato si”, the apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum” and a bronze sculpture. Francisco explained to Dilma that the works he offered her defend that it is only legal to look at a person from top to bottom if it is to help them get up.