Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado this week, only the latest in a months-long series of statements and meetings that have shown the Vatican repeatedly pushing for peace. This week, David Gibson of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture joins host Colleen Dulle to discuss Pope Leo’s approach to his home country’s military action in his adopted continent.
In the first part of the show, Colleen and David outline what we know so far about how the Vatican has pushed for peace in Venezuela, including new reporting from the Washington Post on an urgent Christmas Eve meeting at the Vatican between Cardinal Pietro Parolin and U.S. Ambassador Brian Burch. The two also analyze Pope Leo’s “State of the World” address.
After the break, David and Colleen speak more broadly about Vatican diplomacy and what makes Pope Leo’s approach to foreign policy unique compared to the approaches of his predecessors. Did the cardinals, David proposes, elect Pope Leo in part as a counterweight to Donald Trump, or perhaps as a symbol of “an America they miss”?
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