ROME - Although it’s basically apocryphal, a saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi advises, “Preach always, and, when necessary, use words.” Popes, of course, use a lot of words, but they also find plenty of other ways to preach - in gestures, through their travel, in policy decisions and

personnel appointments, even through the meetings they choose to take.

On Saturday, Pope Francis will speak volumes - quite apart from what he actually says - just by meeting Rebecca Bitrus, a Nigerian victim of Boko Haram, as well as Ashiq Masih and Eisham Ashiq, the husband and daughter of Asia Bibi, who’s been on death row in Pakistan since 2010 on a blasphemy charge.

In effect, the meeting is a powerful statement about the concern of the pope, and the Catholic Church, for anti-Christian persecution. It’s organized by Aid to the Church in Need, a papal foundation supporting suffering Christians around the world.

Popes have long used meetings to make statements, even if their full significance wasn’t always clear in the moment.

When St. Pope John XXIII met the son-in-law and daughter of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in March 1963, marking the first time a pope had met a leading figure from the Communist regime, it was a powerful statement about the Church’s desire for dialogue to heal Cold War tensions, although it didn’t directly result in any sea change in global power politics.

Eighteen years later, St. Pope John Paul II ......    read more