“I want to thank His Holiness, Pope Francis, whose moral example shows us the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is,” Obama said Wednesday. The president was speaking about the intervention of the pope in mending the half-century chilly relationship between the United States and Cuba.

For the pope, the change in relations represents a major geopolitical wish. Francis acted as the chief advocate for renewing diplomatic relations between the two nations. He made a personal plea to ex-President Obama and Cuban leaders in a letter he wrote last summer urging that the two nations should “reset” their relations.

When Obama met the pope at the Vatican last March, the two men discussed a change in U.S.-Cuba relations. The Vatican also hosted trade and diplomatic talks between U.S. and Cuban delegations in October.

“The Holy Father wishes to express his warm congratulations for the historic decision taken by the Governments of the United States of America and Cuba to establish diplomatic relations, with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history,” wrote the Vatican Secretary of State. Also, Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State regularly lobbied American envoys to relax the economic embargo on Cuba. And the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Miguel Diaz (2009-2012), said he regularly raised the issue of an American prisoner in Cuba with his Vatican interlocutors regularly, especially before Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cuba in 2012. “We now have people in the highest offices of the Catholic Church who understand the situation in Cuba, the situation in Latin America, and who also understand the need for a different roadmap to lasting peace,” Diaz said.

“And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” Daniel 8:25

“…the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her…” Revelation 18:3