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Between political neo-messianisms and Augustinian realism: scholars and analysts revisit Leo XIV’s teaching on international politics and Global scenarios

Rome – One year after the election of Pope Leo XIV, a public lecture at the Pontifical Gregorian University has offered one of the first comprehensive readings of his pontificate in the field of international politics and Holy See diplomacy. Organized within the “Rome Summer Seminar on Religion and Global Politics” by the Sinderesi School and hosted by the Alberto Hurtado Centre for Faith and Culture, the evening combined historical reconstruction and theological political analysis, while carefully avoiding partisan alignments. Introducing the event, Archbishop Samuele Sangalli, Adjunct Secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization and coordinator of the Sinderesi School, recalled that “a little more than one year after his election, it seemed especially fitting to pause and reflect on the impact of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV within the context of global politics” and to ask what “shape the Petrine ministry is taking under Pope Leo XIV in the face of the profound transformations occurring within international politics.” He stressed that the Holy See is called to exercise “a mission of safeguarding those fundamental human and spiritual values without which human coexistence will neither improve nor bring good to future generations.” The main lecture was given by historian Massimo Faggioli, who situated Leo XIV’s first year in the context of a rapidly deteriorating international order. He recalled a sequence of crises between January and February 2026 – from the military operation in Venezuela to threats against Greenland and Cuba, followed by armed action against Iran and renewed conflict in Lebanon – as the moment when “we have seen something like a second beginning” of the pontificate regarding the pressing issues brought to the forefront by current global events. At the heart of Faggioli’s analysis was Leo XIV’s insistence on multilateralism. Quoting the Pope’s address to the diplomatic corps on 9 January, he noted that “a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force by either individuals or groups of allies.” In that same speech, Leo XIV warned that “the principle established after World War II, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined,” and that peace is increasingly sought “through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion,” gravely threatening the rule of law. Faggioli then drew attention to the Pope’s seemingly unusual, very brief visit to the Principality of Monaco. He quoted a long interview by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who underlined the significance the Holy See attaches to small states as “natural guardians of multilateralism.” According to Parolin, “for small states, the rule of law is not a burden but the greatest guarantee of survival and freedom,” and today international influence “is no longer measured solely by military force, but by moral credibility and the ability to act as neutral bridges for reconciliation.” For Faggioli, this interpretation transforms what might appear as a protocol visit into a programmatic gesture in favour of a “Pax Vaticana” distinct both from the ancient Pax Romana and the modern Pax Americana. The lecture also examined Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on artificial intelligence and the human person. Faggioli noted that its reception by “unusual interlocutors of the Catholic Church” shows that the Holy See “locates its voice in this race for AI, which is mostly a race between the United States and China.” At the same time, he suggested that the encyclical reveals “a certain kind of loneliness of the Holy See in addressing issues which once would have been addressed by the international or the socialist parties,” to the point that “in a very strange way, the Catholic Church, in its international nature, is really the last ‘International’.” From a European perspective, Faggioli identified Leo XIV’s recent trip to Spain and his address to the Cortes as a kind of “grand opening” of the pontificate towards the continent, with “many echoes of Pope Benedict XVI’s speech to the Bundestag.” In a time when Europe can feel “orphaned or worse threatened by the all time ally, the United States”. In the discussion that followed, which also saw the participation of Professor Michael Driessen of John Cabot University and Dr. Antonella Piccinin of the Notre Dame University, political theorist Fabio Petito placed Magnifica Humanitas within a broader search for a “new multilateralism.” In his view, the document signals that the Holy See wishes to “give weight and centrality to a re articulation of human dignity in the global governance of the world to come.” He suggested that any future world order that is both just and peaceful will have to move beyond a simple “balance of power” between major states and be grounded instead in a renewed ius gentium, “a new cross cultural ius gentium,” capable of integrating the perspectives of emerging civilizations and religious traditions. Another panelist, professor Adrian Pabst, highlighted the theological foundations of Leo XIV’s approach, contrasting a secular “realism” that assumes a violent state of nature with the Augustinian vision of history. For Augustine and for Leo XIV, he argued, realism consists in “trying to see how we can transform the earthly city more in the direction of the City of God,” guided by the ordo amoris, the “order of love.” In this perspective, political and legal structures are called to be infused by charity: “the realism that Pope Leo XIV, like his predecessors, puts forward is an order not based on power, not based purely on law, but actually on love.” Participants raised questions about the Pope’s recent statements on the inadequacy of traditional “just war” categories, his consistent advocacy of non violence and disarmament, and his repeated offer of the Holy See as a neutral venue for dialogue in ongoing conflicts. Without entering into partisan disputes, several speakers underlined that such initiatives presuppose both a clear moral stance and a patient diplomatic neutrality, in accordance with the diplomatic tradition of the Holy See. Concluding the evening, Faggioli suggested that the first year of Leo XIV’s pontificate has already revealed “an ideal of what I would call a Pax Vaticana,” rooted in multilateralism, in the rule of law and in an explicitly theological reading of politics. At the same time, he warned that “we are really in a new era, in a new age,” marked by the resurgence of “political messianisms” and new forms of religious nationalism. In such a context, he added, “ignorance is the last thing that can save us—ignorance of theology, of what it means and so on,” and initiatives of study and dialogue between faith and global politics remain relevant.

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