President Barack Obama met Pope Francis Thursday, and one of the photos taken evokes another papal meeting.
REUTERS/Gabriel Bouys
REUTERS/Claudio Peri
A sort of cosmic pun, given what's happening in the world.
As Mark Mardell of BBC notes, Obama's dilemma in regard to Ukraine can be explained through a joke by Stalin: "How many divisions has the pope?"
Mardell explains that Stalin's point — recently echoed by Putin in Crimea — was that "the greatest moral authority in the world is still impotent in the face of the sort of power that comes from the barrel of a gun."
What's also noteworthy is a comparison of the topics of conversation during the two visits, and the two international crises discussed that have included both heads of state. Putin and the pope discussed the crisis in Syria in November, along with the persecution of Christians in some parts of the world — specifically, in Russia.
On Thursday, the Vatican said Pope Francis and Obama discussed the hope that "there would be respect for humanitarian and international law and a negotiated solution between the parties involved" — an implicit reference to the Ukrainian crisis. Of course, the U.S. and Russia have been at odds during both conflicts.
Here's another pair of photos sharing an uncanny parallel. This time, in the first photo, both the pope and Putin are stone-faced in front of a painting of Jesus Christ.
REUTERS/Claudio Peri