U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See clarifies his remarks ; acknowledges that Pope Leo is above all else, universal shepherd of the Church

 

U.S. ambassador clarifies view on pope’s role in politics, war after Vatican response

Burch said his recent comments to the New York Times were not meant to imply that Pope Leo’s statements about the Iran war should be seen as simply diplomatic — rather than spiritual — guidance.

By Tyler Arnold

After the Vatican reframed statements that U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch made to The New York Times, the ambassador has clarified that he understands Pope Leo XIV’s role as a head of state is “inseparable” from his role as the universal shepherd of the Church.

During a July 23 interview with the EWTN News program “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” Burch clarified that his July 9 comments to the Times were not meant to imply that Leo’s statements about Iran war policy should be seen as simply diplomatic — rather than spiritual — guidance.

“I think thereʼs a misunderstanding,” Burch explained. “... [The role of] the pope as the universal sovereign of the Holy See and as the universal pastor — a pastor of the universal Church — is inseparable.”

The controversy stemmed from a quotation in the Times article in which Burch said: “When the pope acts as the sovereign leader of the Holy See, he is coequal with world leaders.” The article also paraphrased Burch’s position by saying the ambassador argued that the pope’s comments about the Iran war were not made as the vicar of Christ but rather as the political leader of the Vatican City State.

Without naming Burch, the Editorial Director for the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, Andrea Tornielli, subsequently wrote a July 13 op-ed saying that “even when he speaks about war and peace … the Successor of Peter remains, above all, a spiritual leader.” Even though Leo is a head of state, he wrote, this “does not mean that he acts or speaks as a politician when addressing issues concerning the affairs of humanity.”

In his interview with Arroyo, Burch disputed the Times’ characterization of his views, saying the outlet “doesnʼt exactly understand the nuances of Catholic social teaching and how to apply it.”

“The pope has this dual role,” Burch said. “He is both the head of the sovereign territory of the Holy See, which has diplomatic relations with the world, but inseparable from that is his role as the universal pastor of the Catholic Church. And when he acts, he certainly acts in such a way to call the world to these high moral principles, to the ideals of … how [humanity] ought to live together.”

At the same time, Burch insisted that “there are some very difficult, contingent, practical matters” that play into decisions about going to war, which he said are “the responsibility of the prudential wisdom of those responsible for the common good,” which are political leaders like President Trump.

“I tried to explain [to the Times] where there are certain prudential questions,” Burch said. “For example, what does the intelligence information tell us about the situation in Iran? Where is the dialogue at? What [do] the regional alliances look like? What [does] the war game scenario implicate?”

“These are very contingent, prudential questions that inform this question on the legitimate use of force,” he added. “And I think, to the Holy Fatherʼs credit, he is the universal shepherd that is calling humanity to this high ideal to try to resolve these sorts of conflicts without violence, without the use of force.”

Burch told Arroyo that he does not see disagreement between Trump and Leo on the intended end goal: “Thereʼs no disagreement on peace, on disarming Iran, on the need for interreligious dialogue, for religious freedom.”

“Where the challenge comes is the means to get there,” Burch said. He added that it’s not “a surprise, nor a shock, nor an unwelcome message from the Holy Father that we ought to seek peace, that we ought to seek ways to resolve these sorts of conflicts without the use of force.”

“But as you know, original sin exists, and there are evil people in this world with evil intentions that, if they arenʼt stopped, certainly could do enormous damage, catastrophic damage, in the world,” the ambassador emphasized.

The Pope speaks as a Shepherd, not a politician

 

Pope Leo XIV in Castel Gandolfo  (@Vatican Media)Editorial

Vatican

• Andrea Tornielli
• Pope Leo XIV

The Pope always speaks as a Shepherd

Our Editorial Director, Andrea Tornielli, reflects on the role of the Successor of Peter and his Magisterium.

By Andrea Tornielli

Even when he speaks about war and peace, migration or how to remain human in the age of artificial intelligence, the Successor of Peter remains, above all, a spiritual leader. The fact that the Bishop of Rome, by virtue of the Lateran Pacts of 1929 that resolved the “Roman Question,” is also the sovereign of the world’s smallest state—less than half a square kilometer in the heart of the Italian capital—does not mean that he acts or speaks as a politician when addressing issues concerning the affairs of humanity.

Pope Paul VI explained this well in his address on October 4, 1965, to the United Nations General Assembly: “This gathering,” he said, “as you are all well aware, has a twofold nature: it is marked at one and the same time by simplicity and by greatness. By simplicity because the one who is speaking to you is a man like yourselves. He is your brother, and even one of the least among you who represent sovereign States, since he possesses—if you choose to consider us from this point of view—only a tiny and practically symbolic temporal sovereignty: the minimum needed in order to be free to exercise his spiritual mission and to assure those who deal with him that he is independent of any sovereignty of this world.” The Pope, on a visit to the United States, immediately added, speaking about himself: “He has no temporal power, no ambition to enter into competition with you. As a matter of fact, we have nothing to ask, no question to raise; at most a desire to formulate, a permission to seek that of being allowed to serve you in the area of our competence, with disinterestedness, humility and love.”

It is true that, to guarantee the absolute freedom of the Vicar of Christ, it was established nearly a century ago that there would be a tiny patch of land where the Bishop of Rome and Shepherd of the Universal Church would also be sovereign—and thus head of state. But this was, and remains, an arrangement designed to recognize precisely this need for independence from any other state, and not an affirmation of a dual mission. Any glorification or exaggeration of the Pope’s role as head of state, any emphasis on the importance of this role, is therefore misleading because it comes at the expense of his one true mission as universal Shepherd. A Shepherd who speaks to Catholics, Christians, believers, and all people of good will with the sole intent of proclaiming the Gospel—his message of love, brotherhood, and “unarmed and disarming” peace.

This was aptly emphasized by the then-Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, in his address at the Campidoglio on October 10, 1962, on the eve of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. In that speech, the future Pope, speaking of the end of the Church’s temporal power with the fall of the Papal States in 1870, said: “It was then that the papacy resumed with unusual vigor its functions as teacher of life and witness to the Gospel, thus rising to such heights in the spiritual governance of the Church and in its moral influence on the world as never before.”

When he calls for human life to be respected and protected at every stage of its existence, when he speaks of peace with the good of all peoples in mind and calls for an end to the mad arms race—even going beyond the concept of a “just war”—when he calls for dialogue and negotiation by invoking the Magisterium of Social Doctrine, when he calls for migrants to be regarded as people to be welcomed, without ever forgetting their human dignity; when he reminds us that the poor are at the heart of the Gospel and that we must build more just and equitable societies; when he defends the right to religious freedom; when he emphasizes the importance of caring for Creation so that we may pass it on to our children and grandchildren—the Successor of Peter is not speaking as a head of state. He is simply proclaiming the Gospel.