WASHINGTON — You may have noticed Pope Leo is having his moment in the sun this week — both literally in the Algeria-Cameroon-and-Angola sense, but also figuratively in the Trump Tirade™ sense. Since Italian journalists are on strike, we’re in the pulpit to fill you in.
First, the cast of characters:
While the Vatican is the world’s smallest sovereign state by population and size, the Pope’s ‘pastor in chief’ influence extends to 1.4 billion baptised Catholics around the world, plus many more folks among the Catholic-curious.
Stay on top of your world from inside your inbox.
Subscribe for free today and receive way much more insights.
Trusted by 161,000+ subscribers
No spam. No noise. Unsubscribe any time.
Then there’s Italy’s conservative prime minister and famed Trump-whisperer, Giorgia Meloni. Italy’s PMs often comment on papal matters, given a) the Vatican is literally inside Rome, and b) Italy is Catholic-majority, but also c) Meloni in particular has connected with a more conservative and devout base across Italy.
We’re going to assume you don’t need a primer on President Trump or VP Vance. Now…
Second, the plot:
This particular pope has been weighing into political issues for decades, and many would say that’s kinda the job of a preacher: speak truth to power, be a voice for the voiceless.
He’s weighed in particularly on migration, not just per his church’s teachings on welcoming the stranger, but also reflecting his decades serving among Peru’s poor.
And maybe that’s why this Chicago-born preacher’s politics rarely generated many headlines over the years — because it generally wasn’t too surprising.
But that all changed once Leo emerged as our world’s surprise new pope: by November, he was openly calling for “deep reflection” on Trump 2.0’s treatment of migrants, and then days after Trump’s big Maduro operation in Venezuela, the pope used his annual State of the World address to dunk on what he termed a “diplomacy of force”.
So by Easter, things were already pretty tense with the White House, when the pope…
- Cautioned that “God does not bless any conflict”
- Labelled Trump’s threat to destroy civilization in Iran as “truly unacceptable”, and
- Added that God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who wage war (read: Trump 2.0).
So that’s how we got to, you know, a sitting US president calling the pope “weak on crime”, arguing the pontiff “wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon”, then posting/deleting an image depicting himself in a Christ-like pose.
It’s also how we got a Trump-friendly Meloni then a) siding (🇮🇹) with the Vatican, b) criticising Trump’s remarks, and c) defending the principle of religious independence: “I would not feel at ease in a society where religious leaders are expected to follow political direction”.
Third, the scheduling:
The pope now has ample time to get quizzed for more comment, because 70 journalists are now accompanying him on the papal plane for his 11-day apostolic journey around Africa. So there’s no shortage of fuel for the media fire. And that leads us to…
Fourth, the location:
Having the pope’s Africa headlines dominated by a US spat plays rather bluntly to a continent already feeling forgotten by the West. So… what is the pope doing in Africa?
- a) As the world’s fastest-growing, youngest, and poorest continent, the Vatican has long seen Africa as a priority not just for the Church, but the world.
- b) A fifth of the world’s Catholics (288m) are already in Africa, with that number now growing faster than anywhere else — it’s dubbed the hope of the Church.
- c) This pope belongs to the Order of Saint Augustine, who spent most of his life in what is now Muslim-majority Algeria, hence history’s first-ever papal visit. And…
- d) The pope seems to be focusing on conflict and reconciliation, urging peace via diplomacy in (say) Cameroon’s troubled city of Bamenda.
Given the epic crowds turning up at each stop, it’s a message that seems to be resonating.
Intrigue’s Take
Counterintuitively perhaps, this whole spat has given the pope’s Africa trip more coverage than it might’ve received otherwise. And that context also means that a very standard pope line (peace is cool guys?) now seemingly boosts his stature in a world already asking questions about US power. It’s giving Streisand Effect.
It also hints at a longer-term realignment we’re seeing around the world: his Algeria stop had the personal angle we explored above, but it’s bigger than that — amid creeping scepticism towards the West, his Algeria visit looked to us like an attempt to reframe the Church not as some vexed Western import, but rather a 2,000-year-old tradition resting on deep, African foundations.
Sound even smarter:
- Africa’s country with the largest population and largest Catholic community is Nigeria, which hasn’t had a papal visit since 1998.
