The latest back-and-forth between the Trump administration and Pope Leo XIV erupted last week when the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, [Brian Burch claimed]https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/vatican-defends-pope-s-iran-war-censure/ar-AA27UM72?ocid=winp2fptaskbar&cvid=6a56f55e7aef442f83bb3462fe706d21&ei=44) that the Pope’s declaration that the war on Iran is “unjust” was outside of his role as a spiritual leader. Rather, Burch contended, it is the political posture of a head of state. In his New York Times piece on July 9, he explained: “When the pope acts as the sovereign leader of the Holy See, he is coequal with world leaders.” As such, the pope is to be judged as any other sovereign leader; and, in this case, he has only “a set of limited facts.”
Vatican communications editor Andrea Tornielli called that analysis “misleading,” arguing that any attempt to magnify the pope’s role as a statesman distorts his “one true mission as universal Shepherd.” Tornielli said that when Leo speaks about migration, artificial intelligence, or even “the concept of a ‘just war,’” he does so above all as the head of the Catholic Church, “with the sole intent of proclaiming the Gospel.”
