The big question is how effectively he can apply his accumulated soft power to make a difference on the world stage. [...] But the pope's most audacious foreign-policy move has been a crusade against worldwide income inequality and environmental degradation, including man-made climate change.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Holy See hopes the rapprochement will soon be followed by the removal of the U.S. embargo, which the Vatican has long opposed. On Friday, the United States eased rules for U.S. citizens wishing to travel to Cuba and simplified procedures for telephone and Internet investments and money transfers to Cuba.

Pope Francis begins his historic visit to Cuba and the United States this weekend, when he will address the US Congress and the United Nations. It is a chance to influence policymakers on issues that will shape the future of the planet. But there is another platform he should be invited to join.

The waters, indeed, are rough. Should there be some misstep in the U.S. trip, it would surely leave a long-lasting impression, perhaps even one that would color or change the pope’s nearly universally positive standing among the country’s 69 million Catholics.

Pope Francis is not a politician, but likes a good political dustup. And the Holy Father couldn't have packed his trip to the United States this month with more politically charged issues. [...] "People who think the world revolves around Washington politics don't realize that the Pope is a global leader," said Francis Rooney, who was U.S. ambassador to the Vatican for four years under President George W. Bush.

Pope Francis on Sunday decried the deaths of 71 migrants in an abandoned truck in Austria, calling it an offense against "the entire human family. We entrust each of them to the mercy of God," the pontiff said in Rome, calling on world leaders "to cooperate with effectiveness to prevent these crimes."

In a speech that started out as an apology for the crimes of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America during the colonial era, Pope Francis went on to criticize capitalism as “new colonialism” on 9th July. [...] The Pope voiced these thoughts in Bolivia, where he was at the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements, after his appearance in Ecuador. 

Pope Francis dove into a secular subject with his first major encyclical on the theme of environment, “Laudato Si” (“Praise Be to You”), calling countries and peoples to stop ruining the Earth, “our common home." The 184-page document, which can be read here, is regarded as Francis’s critique of unrelenting global capitalism, businesses that sacrifice the environment for profits.