History of the papacy
For the history of the Catholic Church in general, see Timeline of the Catholic Church and History of the Catholic Church.
The history of the papacy, the office held by the pope as head of the Catholic Church, according to Catholic doctrine, spans from the time of Peter to the present day.[1] Moreover, many of the bishops of Rome in the first three centuries of the Christian era are obscure figures. Most of Peter’s successors in the first three centuries following his life suffered martyrdom along with members of their flock in periods of persecution, and they had supreme hierarchy to be passed on within the church.
According to Catholic doctrine, the popes are successors of Saint Peter.
During the Early Church, the bishops of Rome enjoyed no temporal power until the time of Constantine. After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire (the “Middle Ages”, about 476), the papacy was influenced by the temporal rulers of the surrounding Italian Peninsula; these periods are known as the Ostrogothic Papacy, Byzantine Papacy, and Frankish Papacy. Over time, the papacy consolidated its territorial claims to a portion of the peninsula known as the Papal States. Thereafter, the role of neighboring sovereigns was replaced by powerful Roman families during the saeculumobscurum, the Crescentii era, and the Tusculan Papacy.
From 1048 to 1257, the papacy experienced increasing conflict with the leaders and churches of the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). Conflict with the latter culminated in the East–West Schism, dividing the Western Church and Eastern Church. From 1257–1377, the pope, though the bishop of Rome, resided in Viterbo, Orvieto, and Perugia, and lastly Avignon. The return of the popes to Rome after the Avignon Papacy was followed by the Western Schism: the division of the western church between two and, for a time, three competing papal claimants.
The Renaissance Papacy is known for its artistic and architectural patronage, forays into European power politics, and theological challenges to papal authority. After the start of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformation Papacy and Baroque Papacy led the Catholic Church through the Counter-Reformation. The popes during the Age of Revolution witnessed the largest expropriation of wealth in the church’s history, during the French Revolution and those that followed throughout Europe. The Roman Question, arising from Italian unification, resulted in the loss of the Papal States and the creation of Vatican City.
The history of Shia Imami Ismaili Imamat
There is no God but God and Mohammed is the messenger of God. To this the Shias add “and Ali the companion of Mohammed is the “Vicar of God”. Etymologically the word “Shia “ means either a stream or a section. The prophet died without appointing a Kalif or a successor.The Shia school of thought maintains that although DIRECT DIVINE INSPIRATION ceased at the Prophets death, the NEED FOR DIVINE GUIDANCE CONTINUED and this could not be left merely to millions of mortal men SUBJECT TO THE WHIMS AND GUSTS OF PASSION AND MATERIAL NECESSITY, capable of being momentarily but tragically misled, by greed, oratory or by a sudden desire for material advantage. These dangers were Manifest immediately following our Holy Prophet’s death. Mohammed had been both a temporal and spiritual sovereign. The Kalif or successor of the prophet was to succeed him in both these capacities. He was to be both the Emir-al-Mominin, the commander of the true believers and Imam – al-Muslimin, or the spiritual chief of the devout. Perhaps an analogy from Latin Western World will make this clear. He would be the Supreme Pontiff as well as Imperator or temporal ruler. The prophet in his lifetime had said that Ali would be to him as Aaron was to Moses, his brother and right hand man, in the veins of whose descendents, the Prophet’s own blood would flow. The Shias have therefore always held that after the Prophet’s death, Divine power, Guidance, and leadership manifested themselves in Hazrat Ali as the first Imam or the spiritual chief of the devout. The Sunnis however consider him the fourth in succession of Kalifs to temporal power. The lmam is the successor of the prophet in his religious capacity, he is the man who must be obeyed and who dwells among those from whom he commands spiritual obedience. The Sunnis have always held that this authority is merely temporal and secular and is exerted only in the political sphere; they believe therefore it appertains to any lawfully constituted political head of a state, to a Governor or to a president of a Republic. The Shias say that the authority is all pervading and is concerned with spiritual matters also, that it is transferred by inherited right to the Prophet’s sucessoresof his blood.
Excerpt from Memoirs Agakhan III
What is a Papal Bull?
A Papal Bull is described as an edict issued by a Pope. A Papal Bull in Roman Catholicism is an official Papal letter or document. The name is derived from the lead seal (bulla) traditionally affixed to such documents.
By 13th Century the Papal Bull was being used only for the most important documents issued by the Pope.
What is the relationship between Papal Bulls, the East India Company, The Crusades, Slavery, Genocides in its various forms, and violation of Human Rights??
Everything is attributed to Papal Bulls better called Papal Bulldozers issued by the Roman Catholic Church. The Papal Bulls have played havoc in history and are responsible for allowing atrocities of all kinds to happen in Non Christian lands and people. They have allowed the usurping of property and lands of indigenous people in various parts of the world, namely North America and Canada, South America( Latin America), East, West and South Africa.
The Papal Bulls, FALSELY, in the name of JESUS CHRIST, have provoked Crusades, Slavery, destruction of empires and provoking genocides in its various forms, destruction of Communities, pillaging and massacres and blatant murders of communities, marginalisation of indigenous peoples, destruction of knowledge and wisdom systems, destruction of languages evolved by ancestors, of economies, forced labour, leaving communities untreated for diseases and letting them die, impoverishment and dehumanisation of communities
The East India Company was profiteering rampantly from slave trade.
What did the Portuguese government have to do to ratify it’s country’s relationship with the Vatican to sign a Concordat?
I have posted two articles called Bilateral/Diplomatic Relations between Portugal and the Holy See /Vatican and another article called Concordat Watch together with the interview of Agakhan IV to Expresso Magazine on 21 St July 2018.
In those two articles l have saliented the ratifications that had taken place, and a Concordat signed between the Vatican and Portugal.
Basically the following major details were addressed.
1) The State( secular) and the Church had to separate, and each one and severally became autonomous and independent
2) The freedom of religious act had to be promulgated to protect human rights and women from religious threats
3) Both the Vatican and Portugal had / have to Work within limits of religious freedom, for the benefit of the common good and duty of building a society which promotes the dignity of mankind, justice and peace.
5) Portugal had to give up its patronage of the Far East
The following 4 articles entitled
1) When Pope Francis Revokes the Papal Bulls
2) Face to face with Pope Francis
3) The Amazon Synod and
4) God’s Diplomats, the
changing attitude of the Catholic Church, in a very sensible direction, to promote pluralism and human rights and their participation in world political affairs trying to influence good outcome
UPDATED: SEP 12, 2018 | ORIGINAL: SEP 3, 2016
When Pope Francis Revokes the Papal Bull
BY STEVEN NEWCOMB
In 1491, throughout the immense geographical area now commonly called the Western Hemisphere, our original free nations were existing independent of any Christian European claims of domination in any of our national territories. During our existence to that point, our ancestors developed and evolved our languages, cultures, ceremonial and spiritual traditions, our origin stories, our knowledge and wisdom systems, our economies, and our values.
In his book The American Holocaust (1992), historian David Stannard says that by the fifteenth century it is likely that some 90 to 100 million people were then existing throughout the entire hemisphere (North, Central, and South “America”). He says that after 1492, on average, some 95% those lives had ended “when the bloodbath was over” through the combination of diseases, forced labor, and outright murders and massacres.
As we all know, the Spanish Admiral Cristobal Colón (“Christ Carrier Colonizer”), as a representative of the Crown of Castile-Aragon (Spain), sailed three ships across the Atlantic Ocean to the islands now called the Caribbean. In May of 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued a number of papal decrees that called for non-Christian nations to be forced under the domination (deprimantur, subjicere, reducere) of “the Christian Empire” (imperiiChristiani).
By the 16th and later centuries, various monarchies and states of Christendom—Portugal, Spain, England, France, Holland, Sweden, and Russia—all subscribed in some fashion to this dominating imperial attitude in their dealings with our non-Christian ancestors, nations, and our national territories.
Western historians and other Western narrators are fond of saying that 1492 marks the beginning of “The Conquest” of “the Americas.” By “The Conquest” they mean that Colón’s voyages were the start of what they regard as a great victory or triumph by the Christian world over our non-Christian nations and ancestors. The implied message is clear: As a result of the
Voyages of Cristobal Colón and many other adventuring colonizers, and as a result of brutal acts of domination and dehumanization, the Christians of Europe assumed that Christendom had become entitled to assert over a permanentright of domination over our nations and our territories.
On the basis of that assumed right to dominate our existence, the political successors of Western Christendom (such as the United States and Canada, etc.) now consider our original free nations still obligated to live underaclaimed right of domination by the various states that emerged from Western Christendom
Now imagine that Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church, and Head of the Vatican City State, were to unequivocally say to the world in 2016: “I want to add to my recent apology in Bolivia to indigenous peoples. I want to do so by acknowledging that my papal predecessors were wrong to have authorized a claimed right of domination over the original free nations of the Western Hemisphere, and over original free nations in other areas of the planet, such as Africa, Australia and New Zealand.”
Imagine if Pope Francis were to further say to the world: “My predecessors had no right to call, as they did, for non-Christian nations to be reduced and subjected to the domination of the Christian empire (“imperiiChristiani”). The claimed right of domination by Christian powers, authorized by the Holy See, was not in keeping with the teachings of Jesus.”
Imagine if Pope Francis were to acknowledge that the domination language written into the papal documents of the fifteenth century, and later written into the political and legal systems of states, never had any validity. What if the pope were to acknowledge that the political systems, such as the United States, that emerged from Western Christendom, have today no valid claim of a right of domination over our original free nations? This would undercut all state claims of authority over our nations and our lives.
Imagine if Pope Francis were to support our contention that there is no such thing as a right of domination over our nations and peoples. The pope would thereby announce to the world what we already know: Our original nations are still rightfully free of any and all claims of political domination now being asserted by dominating states against our nations and peoples, and, therefore, such claims by states are wrongful and unacceptable. Such an acknowledgment by Pope Francis would send an important and powerful message to the world.
The pope’s candid admission of the wrongful nature of his predecessors’ decrees and pronouncements, such as those of Pope Nicholas V and Pope Alexander VI, would be a step toward destroying once and for all the very premise of a claimed right to dominate and to dehumanize our nations. His admission would eliminate the starting point (premise) of the political arguments and judicial precedents of domination still being used against our nations at this time, judicial precedents which maintain in our era the dominating biases and bigotries of Western Christendom’s past.
The pope’s admission would support us in our contention that the political systems of Canada, the United States, or other countries, have never had and still do not have the right to unilaterally impose their concepts, values, and definitions on our nations. This includes the ideas of “primitive tribes” “plenary power,” “domestic dependent nations,” “mere occupancy,” “crown title,” and “crown sovereignty.” Our nations and peoples have never been validly subject to the invaders’ concepts, ideas and labels, or their silly “ceremonies of domination” (“possession”). An admission by the pope that the domination language of the papal bulls was and is invalid would undercut, for example, the main argument used against our nations by men such as Joseph Story when he was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and used against our original free nations by the U.S. Supreme Court. In his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Story quoted the Latin version of the Inter Caetera papal bull of 1493, and said that the Christians unilaterally called our ancestors “infidels, heathens, and savages.” He said the Christians, on the basis of their religion (i.e., the Bible), refused to acknowledge our nations as being “absolute, sovereign, and independent nations.”
That and other such arguments have left us defenseless against state claims of a right of domination over our existence within our own national territories. With such falsehoods stripped away, the truth is revealed: Our nations are still rightfully free of and from any claimed right of domination. Our nations have always been in possession of the prerogatives derived from our original free existence, which includes the inherent right to live free from any claimed right of domination over our lands, our lives, and our territories.
It is time for Pope Francis to publicly announce what we already know: The papal language of domination issued by his papal predecessors was invalid language. By publicly announcing this, Pope Francis will thereby publicly acknowledge that states have been using invalid arguments against our nations for centuries, on the basis of a pretended right of domination found in those ancient papal documents, and imitative royal charters.
The pope’s announcement and his formal and ceremonial revocation of those papal decrees will acknowledge that at no time in the past did the monarchies and states of Christendom have a legitimate right of supremacy over our Original Free Nations of Mother Earth. Therefore, present day states, which are systems of domination that have destroyed entire delicate ecosystems in our traditional territories, and poisoned the Earth’s precious waters, her lifeblood—have no valid chain of title in relation to our nations or our national territories. Such toxic systems of thought and behavior are premised on nothing but a “chain” of false pretensions and illusions of grandeur.
Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape) is co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and author of Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery (Fulcrum, 2008). He is a producer of the documentary movie, “The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code,” directed and produced by Sheldon Wolfchild (Dakota), with narration by Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree).
UPDATED: SEP 13, 2018 | ORIGINAL: MAY 6, 2016
Face to Face with Pope Francis to Get the Inter Caetera Papal Bull Revoked
On May 4, 2016 I had the rare opportunity in St. Peter’s Square to call on Pope Francis to formally revoke that document.
BY STEVEN NEWCOMB
On May 4, 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued the Inter Caetera papal bull which called for non-Christian nations to be reduced and subjugated (“barbarenationesdeprimantur”). On May 4, 2013, 200 years after our great Shawnee leader Tecumseh fell in battle on October 5, 1813, Dr. Debra Harry (Paiute Nation), Sharon Venne (Cree Nation, Treaty Six) and I saw two velum parchment originals of the papal bull at the General Archives of the Indies in Seville, Spain.
On May 4, 2016 I had the rare opportunity in St. Peter’s Square to call on Pope Francis to formally revoke that document. Our 20-plus years of effort to have that papal decree revoked as a document representative of a series of such documents is not a move toward what is being erroneously called “reconciliation.” It is a move toward decolonization and rectification. It is a move to end the domination language system that Pope Alexander VI directed at our non-Christian ancestors, our Original Free Nations, a language and legacy of devastation and oppression that is ongoing.
Given Pope Francis’s use of the concept of “Mother Earth” in his statement Ladauto Si, his statement of contrition in Bolivia for the terrible treatment of Original Nations by the Catholic Church and other colonizing forces, and his various calls for reform, Pope Francis is the perfect candidate for a revocation of the series of papal bulls of domination. Archbishop SilvanoTomasi, at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, met with our group for two hours, a delegation from various Original Nations that had gathered during the Long March to Rome to discuss the ongoing call for a revocation of the papal bulls, which began with the Indigenous Law Institute’s efforts back in 1992. The Long March to Rome gathering convened in Florence and Rome from April 30 to May 4, 2016.
After saying a brief prayer in our Lenape language I said to the pope: “Pope Francis this is a book that I’ve written about the papal bull Inter Caetera from May 4 1493. Today is the 523rd year since that document was issued which called for the domination of our Original Nations and Peoples from Great Turtle Island and all non-Christian nations throughout the planet. That papal document has been extremely destructive to our nations and peoples for more than five centuries. We’re calling on you to formally revoke that document so you can release the spirit of that negative energy that the Vatican placed on us.” Pope Francis responded, “I will read it.” I continued, “Thank you. This is a statement we’ve created. I want to thank you so much for agreeing to meet with us.”
It has been 24 years since Birgil Kills Straight, a traditional Headman of the Oglala Lakota Nation, and I began our effort to have the pope revoke the papal bull. Birgil arranged for us to travel with Italian allies on a speaking tour of cities in Northern Italy. Now we have formally delivered that call for revocation directly to the heart and mind of Pope Francis, who has taken the name of St. Francis of Assisi, someone who identified with reverence for nature and the animals.
Birgil and I went to Assisi, Italy in the mid-1990s when Birgil was asked to be part of the drafting team for the preamble to the Earth Charter. He was invited by Father Perzywozny from Poland to sit with eminent scholars in that drafting team. Birgil brought with him an essay he wrote about Oglala Lakota ceremonies and spirituality, explaining by implication that the Catholic Church had not succeeded in attempting to destroy the language and ceremonial traditions of the Oglala Lakota People. And by means of those two aspects of their existence they still communicate with the animals just as Francis of Assisi is said to have done. Father Perzywozny was rather unreceptive to that message, yet the scientists were not because they understood the dire condition in which we now find Mother Earth and how critically important respectful Earth centered teachings are at this time. Birgil Kills Straight then went on to the Vatican and met with Pope John Paul II.
In his statement Laudato Si (Encyclical Letter on care for our common home), Pope Francis stated: “Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures.” There is no better example of the Church’s claim that Christendom has a right of absolute domination over non-Christians than the wording found in the papal bulls of Pope Nicholas V. He exhorted King Alfonso of Portugal to invade, capture, vanquish, and subdue, all Saracens, pagans and other enemies of Christ, to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and take away all their possessions and property.” The papal bulls of 1493 contain the same language system of domination and dehumanization. It uses words of empire, and domination, subjection, reduction, subjugation, and we are now living in the dire circumstances of that horrible language system.
We proposed to Archbishop Tomasi that an international conference take place with an ongoing dialogue specifically focused on the themes of domination and dehumanization, and a detailed examination of the dominating language found in the papal bulls. I told him “with respect, there is much of your own history that you do not know.” And I asked him whether he had ever read the papal bulls in question. He said that he had not. I then informed him in great detail as to the nature of those documents.
I told Archbishop Tomasi that once such ideas and behaviors have been institutionalized in laws and policies, the Church cannot simply invoke Vatican II, for example, and not look back and take responsibility for the wreckage left in the wake of those papal bulls of domination. As far as the Indigenous Law Institute is concerned, this work is not about “reconciliation,” a euphemism for the domination language system which furthers the colonizers’ goal of our assimilating and incorporating us into the body politic of the state. The papal bulls and the boarding and residential schools of domination were intended to incorporate us and absorb us into their colonial system. The papal bulls demonstrate a basic untruth found in the concept of “truth and reconciliation”: The historical record shows no “good relations” or “prior friendship” with the oppressors which needs to be “restored.” Thus, below the surface is the hidden meaning, “truth and untruth.”
This work is about the liberation of our nations and peoples from the behavioral patterns and language system of domination. It is about restoration and healing for our nations and peoples based on our love of and spiritual connection to the land, our languages, our sacred and ceremonial places, and our original free and independent existence as nations extending back before a Western notion of time.
Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape) is co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and author of Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery(Fulcrum, 2008). He is a producer of the documentary movie, “The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code,” directed and produced by Sheldon Wolfchild (Dakota), with narration by Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree).
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The Amazon Synod, indigenous rights and a problematic papal bull
David E. DeCosse and Anthony Mejia
United StatesAugust 18, 2020
Papal-Bull-indigenous-rights-and-The-Amazon-Synod—La-Croix
Published Feb. 21, 2020. Pope Francis has the opportunity to take a bold stop and build on the success of the Synod of Bishops’ assembly on the Amazon and his post-synodal exhortation, QueridaAmazonia.He could revoke the 15th century papal bull that opened the door to the genocide of indigenous peoples in what are now called the Americas. Of course, the issues of married priests and women’s ordination in the Amazon and beyond will not go away, despite the fact that Querida Amazonia is silent about the former and rejects the latter.But of greater significance than those issues is the document’s prophetic reflection on the indigenous peoples and lands of the Amazon in light of the Gospel. And that’s where formal revocation of Pope Alexander VI’s bull of 1493, known as Inter Caetera, comes in. Such a revocation would extend Querida Amazonia’s prophetic engagement with the indigenous of the Amazon to native peoples around the world. It would be a step to undo a catastrophic historical injustice. It would also bolster contemporary indigenous rights claims in land disputes. And it would affirm a powerful new vision for the people of God in the face of climate change. In fact, for the last years indigenous peoples around the world have called for the bull to be revoked. In 2016, in an initiative called the Long March to Rome, tribal leaders met briefly with Pope Francis and for hours with Vatican diplomat Archbishop SilvanoTomasi to discuss the bull. More recently, at a press conference last October during the Synod assembly, Rosebud Sioux Tribal Chair, Rodney M. Bordeaux, renewed the call for revocation. What is happening to (the indigenous of the Amazon) now, happened to us in Dakota 120 years ago, when without consultation, they took our land away, based on economic gain, he said.In general, problematic papal bulls don’t get revoked. Like old soldiers, they just fade away. A bull (from the Latin bulla, the authenticating seal at the end of a papal document) is a decree pertaining to policy. As a practical statement, a bull is neither dogmatic nor infallible. In the last years, the Vatican’s United Nations office has said that Inter Caetera is a historic remnant with no juridical or spiritual value. In 2015, Pope Francis apologized in Bolivia for many grave sins against native peoples committed by members of the Church in the course of the colonial occupation of the Americas. But he did not specifically apologize for or revokeInterCaetera.In an act that strikes us now as smacking of wild historical hubris, Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo de Borja) in 1493 took a break from tending to his children (he had four) and inserted his Spanish origins into growing nationalist and colonial clashes between Spain and Portugal. He accepted the stated purpose of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to bring the Catholic faith to the indigenous peoples whom Columbus had encountered, and accordingly declared: It’s important to understand several key principles that informed what Alexander promulgated. One was the assumption at the time of a universal papal jurisdiction derived directly from Christ for the purpose of the salvation of souls.In effect, Alexander assumed a pope had sovereignty over the lands Columbus found and that such lands – and lands to be found in the future – could be given to the Spanish crown for the sake of the spread of the Gospel. At the time of Inter Caetera, this ultimate appeal to universal papal jurisdiction co-existed uneasily with competing principles. For instance, the Council of Constance in 1414 affirmed the natural law rights of non-Christian peoples to self-government and property. This affirmation prompted 16th century Jesuit philosopher Francesco Vitoria to argue that in principle the pope had had no right to give away native lands. Moreover, Catholic theology held that no human being could be compelled to accept Christian faith (although heretics, having first accepted and then rejected faith, could be compelled to recant their heresy). But, of course, whatever force belonged to these limiting principles was washed away in an orgy of conquest, enslavement and theft. Native peoples were made fit for plunder and death by a host of de-humanizing justifications: their tribal practices violated natural law; they were sub-human; they weren’t in a state of grace…
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New book ‘God’s Diplomats’ unveils the secret history of Vatican diplomacy
Sep 3, 2021
One of the Vatican’s most important but least studied departments is actually one of its most extensive: the massive network of lay and religious people engaged in peacemaking, information gathering and international diplomacy who throughout history have swayed governments and challenged kings.
In a new book, God’s Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy and America’s Armageddon, journalist Victor Gaetanunveils the inner workings of the Holy See’s diplomatic efforts. The book not only corrects the relative anonymity of the Catholic Church’s crucial function, but also discloses how Vatican diplomats often find themselves clashing with United States foreign policy.
“As pope, Francis practices diplomacy for a multipolar world,” said Gaetan in an interview with Religion News Service.”
In three major theaters today, the Holy See sees U.S. hubris as particularly counterproductive: Middle East, Russia and China.”
“And in each place, Francis goes out of his way to model dialogue as the antidote to conflict,” he said.
Rich in personal anecdotes and interviews, God’s Diplomats is divided into two parts. In the first part of the book, Gaetan unpacks what makes Vatican diplomacy effective and unique before taking up case studies in which cassocked diplomats have tipped the balance in favor of dialogue and encounter amid global crises.
An important and often confusing distinction underlies the book. Vatican City is an independent city-state, “smaller than Central Park,” as Gaetan puts it, while the Holy See is a global entity that reaches wherever its more than 1.2 billion faithful are. “That duality is at the heart of what makes Vatican diplomacy nimble — and successful,” said Gaetan.
The Holy See’s top diplomat is the secretary of state, currently Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who holds a position comparable to that of prime minister. His office is divided in three parts, one for general church affairs, another for relations with other states and the third, created by Francis in 2017, comprises diplomatic staff.
The secretariat can count on a network of Catholic charitable organizations, lay movements, missionaries and nuns spread across the world who have a direct insight into the communities they serve. In addition, it has a permanent observer status at the United Nations, allowing it to get “involved in the nitty-gritty of global debates,” Gaetan said.
Holy See representatives, called nuncios, cultivate relationships with most of the world’s governments, relying on information gathered by Catholics on the ground. They are trained at the oldest training institute for professional diplomats in the world, the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, created in 1701.
Gaetan dissects a nuncios’ preparation, which includes international and diplomatic history, negotiation techniques and fluency in at least four languages. Historically, the author explains, Vatican diplomats applied principles of prudence and discretion, born from their experience in the confessional.
Francis has ordered the development of courses on the plight of immigrants and refugees, and aspiring Vatican diplomats must now undergo a mandatory year of missionary work. Like his predecessors, Francis asked a Catholic lay movement to help him forward his vision, the Catholic Movement of St. Egidio, which is centered on “prayer, poor and peace.”
As a state without an army and with its biggest export being postcards, it can remain above the push and pull of economic and political power. Its charitable works further burnish its reputation. The pope’s diplomats are nonetheless powerful intermediaries on the world stage. If they are little recognized, it’s in part because they often prefer to work behind the scenes.
GOD’S DIPLOMATS: POPE FRANCIS, VATICAN DIPLOMACY, AND AMERICA’S ARMAGEDDON
By Victor Gaetan
476 pages; Published by Rowman& Littlefield; 2021
Under Francis, Vatican diplomats tipped the balance in favor of dialogue and negotiation from Kenya to Colombia to South Sudan and influenced a host of other issues. “Did you know that under Pope Francis, Vatican diplomats have questioned the ethics of weaponized drones, challenged pharmaceutical companies for claiming intellectual property rights that prevent the poor from accessing medicine, and defended indigenous people losing land to extractive industries such as mining?” Gaetan asks in the book.
This pope and the United States have seen their positions drift farther apart, most recently disagreeing on China. But Gaetan explains that “the worldview clash between the U.S. and Holy See extends back to the start of the modern era” in 1870.
Pope Leo XIII “was horrified” by the U.S. takeover of the Philippines in 1899, Gaetan writes, just as Pope Benedict XV opposed the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles because it deepened resentment among the losing parties, especially Germany. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Pope Pius XII was quick to establish diplomatic relations with Japan (20 million Catholics were in occupied territories at the time), angering president Roosevelt.
More recently, Pope John Paul II condemned the U.S. invasion of Iraq, while Benedict XVI’s rekindling of relations with Russia and the local Orthodox church angered the White House.
Questions remain as to whether Francis and President Joe Biden, the second Catholic American chief executive, see eye to eye.
“Can Biden impress on his foreign policy apparatus the need to settle disputes justly, without revenge, without seeking to “win” or to make another nation suffer for disagreeing?” Gaetan asks.
Gaetan points out that Biden helped his then-boss, President Barack Obama, decide to overthrow Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi, a move that Francis criticized. “The catastrophic tragedy in Afghanistan should inspire reflection,” Gaetan told RNS, expressing his hope “that the president discerns the need for what Pope Francis counsels: identifying shared interests, even with protagonists. Then, working to expand collaboration from there.”
Gaetan explained. “Francis allies with national and regional stakeholders who have moral authority, whether they are political leaders or religious leaders,” he said. Francis has sought encounter in every major world crisis he has faced since the beginning of his papacy, Gaetan writes, sometimes angering political players as well as Catholics.
The U.S. is most at odds with the Holy See when it comes to Russia and China. When conflict arose in Ukraine in 2014, “the Holy See and Pope Francis refused to side with one party or the other in the conflict,” Gaetan writes. “They did not want a religious cold war to ensue in the country.”
Francis’ refusal to be sucked into the partisan conflict in Ukraine underlines how “the Vatican leadership believes Russia is a valuable ally for Europe,” Gaetan says.
The same could be said about China. In 2018, the Holy See and China signed a controversial and secretive provisional agreement. Last year, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo all but chastised the pope for the deal during a visit to Rome.
Francis’ approach has yielded some landmark moments, from the historic encounter in 2016 at the airport in Cuba with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill to the document on fraternity signed with the grand imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, one of Sunni Islam’s most esteemed leaders.
“The Catholic faithful mainly seem oblivious to the positive impact the Church has in the rough and tumble world of foreign relations, probably because so often the work is done behind the scenes,” said Gaetan, who said that writing the book has strengthened his own faith.
“But as one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, the pope doesn’t need affirmation or permission for his policies — except from God. And having practiced diplomacy for some 1,700 years, the Catholic Church will surely keep at it,” he added.
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