Pope Francis Becomes First Pontiff to Visit Venice Biennale

Pope Francis made history as the first pontiff to visit the Venice Biennale, whose 2024 edition is titled 'Stranieri ovunque' (Foreigners Everywhere). The visit highlights a tension central to the Pope's teachings: the polarity between being a foreigner and a citizen. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis emphasized citizenship as a struggle for belonging. He has confronted migration as a global political issue and coined terms like 'anti-city' and 'non-citizens' to describe social estrangement. The Pope draws on the idea that understanding the center requires viewing it from the periphery, citing François Jullien's approach to Greek logos from Chinese thought, and historical examples like Magellan in the West and Matteo Ricci in the East. Within the Church, this polarity appears between the Church as ekklesia (gathering) and its citizenship in heaven. Francis wrote in 2008 that Christians walk as foreigners in their own city, like Abraham. He values 'strangeness' as a source of knowledge, quoting poet Gerard Manley Hopkins' praise of 'all things counter, original, spare, strange.' The Biennale's theme poses a question: is it a call or a statement? The risk is reducing difference to estrangement, whereas Francis urged in 2001 to 'make ourselves neighbors amid differences.' In an era of nationalism and xenophobia, the challenge is integration, harmony, and the common good, of which art is a sign and prophecy.