The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has addressed the Catalan and Spanish political situation in a private audience he held this Monday with Pope Francis. A meeting in which, according to what he later assured the media, both agreed on the need to “dialogue between different people” in order to reach agreements.
“We have talked about the need for dialogue and negotiation. The Pope has expressed that the way is always to talk between different people in order to reach agreements. “Everyone can subscribe to this opinion no matter what they think,” said the president in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. “I reaffirm my commitment to dialogue, negotiation and the need to reach agreements to resolve all conflicts,” he insisted.
The leader of the Catalan Executive did not want to reveal whether within these conversations the amnesty for those accused of the process agreed between the PSOE and ERC within the framework of the agreement for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez has been mentioned. “I am not going to go into details, it is not what is involved in meetings of this type,” said Aragonès, who believes that “the opinion that the Holy Father may have on the matter will be expressed by himself.” Asked about Junts' criticism of the agreement reached by the Republicans and Socialists, Aragonès once again defended that it is a good agreement and that no other government had achieved the transfer of Rodalies.
The audience, held in the library of the Apostolic Palace, lasted about 40 minutes. Although in their first meeting of the day Francisco revealed that he was not in good health, the president later stated that he saw him well. He has been alone with Francisco for half an hour, in a conversation carried out in a “friendly” and “complicit” tone, and in the last minutes his wife, Janina Juli Pujol, has joined; the delegate of the Generalitat in Italy, Luca Bellizzi, and two other people from his team. According to Aragonès, at the hearing they also talked about the conflict between Israel and Palestine or the policies that Catalonia is pursuing regarding immigration or housing, among other issues.
The president has given the Pope a silver Sant Jordi, a reproduction of the articulated sculpture found in the chapel of the Palau de la Generalitat, along with the book Canigó by the poet and priest Jacint Verdager and the Complete Works. Poetry and Theater by Joan Maragall. He has also given her another book by Joan Guerrero that connects Maragall's poetry with landscape and social photographs and a bag made by inmates in a penitentiary center.
Until now, the only Catalan president who had been received in audience by a pontiff is Jordi Pujol, who held a meeting with John Paul II at the beginning of 1981. Artur Mas was also received in audience by Karol Wojtyla when he was councilor in cap, in 2002. Jordi Pujol met John Paul II again on his visit to Catalonia in 1982 and the socialist José Montilla also received Benedict XVI when he traveled to Barcelona in 2010.
According to the Generalitat, the hearing was requested by letter by the president on June 22 of this year, after a meeting with the cardinal archbishop of Barcelona, Joan Josep Omella. In the letter, Aragonès mentioned the relations between the Catalan institutions and the Vatican, and the proximity of two relevant events in Catalonia, the celebration in 2025 of the millennium of the Abbey of Montserrat and the completion of the works on the Sagrada Família.
The Vatican responded on July 1, also by letter, the usual channel, confirming that the Pontiff would receive the president in a private audience, and later they finalized the date. The meeting comes when ERC has just reached an agreement with the PSOE for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, and is waiting for Junts per Catalunya to close the last details of the pact in Brussels, but Aragonès has denied any discomfort from the Vatican due to the coincidence with his audience.
