Judging by the images he posted about himself wearing the liturgical miter and pontificate robe, in his recent statement about his desire to be a clergyman, US President Donald Trump appears to have an extraordinary interest in the Vatican’s role in world politics. But he is not the only world leader with skins in the game.
During periods of international tensions, religious radicalization and apocalyptic nuclear threat, the temptation for the nation to influence Conclave is strong.
And while they were more careful about it than Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reportedly were elected to those who met their priorities.
The rifts of Western political order overlap with the internal rifts within the Vatican.
As a result, the cardinals who choose the next pope could be polarised between centralized personnel and internationalists, suggests Frances Co Clementi, a professor of comparative public law at the University of La Sapienza in Rome.
“In Conclave, there is a conflict between the interpretation of the church based on returning to the idea of the central government and the European church, where European churches facing a Western crisis, have to somehow disperse,” he told Euroneus.
The reforms of the institutions of the Church, launched by the late Church, were undoubtedly moving towards the second hypothesis of internationalization of Vatican executives and decision-making structures.
Pasquale Ferrara, director of political affairs and international security at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and professor of diplomacy and negotiation at Rome’s Luis University, said the internationalization of the church’s elite has reached a turning point.
“Pope Francis appointed Cardinals from all four corners of the world,” he explains. This multinational composition provides very different sensitivity to the conclave. We believe this Conclave has the precise role to bring the world’s periphery to Rome. ”
In 2013, many observers called Pope Francis “the American Pope.” In the United States, both loyal and political establishment believed that, by his appointment, the Vatican’s axis of power had shifted from traditional eurocentrism to the American world.
But Pope Francis’s aggressive and critical stance on subjects such as war, immigration rights, the social fractures of the current economic order, church dialogue between China and Russia, and irritating some of their expectations of their willingness to criticize Israel.
“It is clear that all the values contained in the cyclic Laudat Sea contradict the socioeconomic model Pope Francis considers unstable: turbocapitalism, environmental destruction, a kind of private, big technology neo-imperialism.”
Although he explains that these cross-border issues are not just one country, it is clearly the heart of the reality of American life.
“It’s a bit reductive to think that’s for the sake of the United States or against it.”
Conclave Agenda
War and peace are historically important political topics for all, but Pope Francis has sent his diplomats into a historically active mediation role in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, far beyond the commandment of “don’t kill you.”
The late Pope’s political status attracted both criticism and enthusiasm. Vatican diplomats had to correct the pitch to certain phrases in Pope Francis’ phrases, such as “NATO barking at Russian borders,” which the Vatican appears to place authoritarian regimes and liberal democracies on the same ethical level.
Professor Stefano Seccanti, a constitutionalist and former member of the Democratic Italian parliament, described the model of his involvement as “excessive real.”
He opened the church to modernity, contrasting with the last Pope’s tenure and the trend that began at Vatican II in 1965.
“A wave of affirmation between the Christian Democrats and Catholic, Democrats, anti-communist US President John F. Kennedy, the Catholic Church and Pope Paul VI has established that democracy is the closest political system to evangelical ideals,” he tells Euronews.
Pope Francis’s opening and understanding with undemocratic countries, including Russia, China and others, has caused surprises even within the church itself.
“The church’s need to coexist and interact with undemocratic countries like China, perhaps, and the perception of the difference between established democracy and undemocratic regimes (substantial to the doctrine of the church itself) is not well understood,” Seckanti says.
At Pope Francis’ funeral, Trump and Ukrainian President Voldymi Zelenkie had a conversation in the chapel of St. Peter’s Cathedral. They were next to some of the ancient stone cos of Hadrian and Emperor Otto at the end of the 17th century. This was transformed into a baptismal font at the end of the 17th century.
There was also a fleeting appearance in a modest US ukrane talk at St. Peters by Macron and British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer, but the third chair was empty.
Some commentators joked that the seats were not actually empty, but were occupied by the Holy Spirit, the Trinity being that inspires the Cardinals in Pope elections. Perhaps the art of the covenant will extend to joint ventures with the Holy Spirit to rule the future Pope.
Secretary of State, Cardinal Elector and Pope candidate Pietro Parolin will support the meeting between Trump and Zelensky in a relaxed atmosphere. But Trump had already identified Vladimir Putin’s position on Russia.
Diplomacy and decentralization
In the case of the Russian war in Ukraine, Cardinal Parolin and British Archbishop Richard Galeger have always made it clear that Moscow is an invader and has affirmed Kiev’s right to protect itself.
On the issue of full-scale invasion in Russia, the two Cardinals have effectively reorganized Vatican policies into the status of the European Union and the UK.
However, the increasing excellence in the so-called periphery of the Catholic Church is also important to the revitalization of Rome and Europe, the traditional centre of its historical and spiritual behavior.
Seckanti concludes that as the internationalization of the church grows, so should so do respect for local diversity. “We have to get used to having solutions to some problems that are a little more decentralized and diverse,” he says.
There’s a big problem with the conclave. Will the future Pope’s approach to the international order continue the reforms initiated by Pope Francis, or will he take a step back and focus on traditional political relations with the West, as in the days of Benedict XVI and John Paul II?
The latter is as active as Pope Francis in international politics, and is even believed as one of the architects of the end of Eastern Europe’s communist regime.
One of the potential new popes, the Parolin Cardinal laid the foundation for the new Vatican international policy. However, many observers believe that, along with many cardinals in previous remote areas of the world, the new configuration of the Conclave can provide many surprises.
