Helsinki Commission briefing: Pope Leo XIV emphasizes peace and human dignity as U.S. criticism stokes diplomatic friction

A briefing hosted by the U.S. Helsinki Commission examined how the Holy See projects influence through diplomacy and humanitarian networks and whether recent public criticism by the U.S. president will complicate relations.

Alexander John Paul Lutz, policy fellow at the U.S. Helsinki Commission, opened by citing Pope Leo XIV’s address to the diplomatic corps and a recent presidential message that said, “If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican.” Lutz used that exchange to frame the session’s question: can the Holy See remain a moral interlocutor in a world he described as reverting to force and transactional politics?

Victor Gaetan, senior international correspondent at the National Catholic Register, described Vatican diplomacy as rooted in the protection of human dignity and the church’s mission to engage all parties. He outlined four functions—representation, mediation, preservation, evangelization—and pointed to historical cases in which the Holy See acted as broker, including a papal envoy’s mediation in the 1978 Argentina–Chile Beagle Channel dispute and Vatican-facilitated steps that helped normalize U.S.–Cuba relations.

Peter G. Martin, special assistant to the president of Boston College and a long-serving U.S. diplomat to the Holy See, described the attraction of a U.S. posting to the Vatican: U.S. diplomats there nearly always focus on third-country issues and rely on the Holy See’s convening power, religious orders, and lay organizations such as the Community of Sant’Egidio. “We aren’t trying to sell the Vatican anything,” Martin said, describing the posting as “pure diplomacy.”

On questions that President Trump’s public remarks—widely circulated on social media—had politicized the papacy, Martin said he would not speculate about the conclave’s deliberations and added, “I would doubt that his being selected because he was an American.” Gaetan and other panelists echoed that the conclave vote is secret and stressed Leo XIV’s long pastoral and diplomatic record as the primary explanation for his election.

Panelists also emphasized the Holy See’s practical access in fragile contexts. Lutz noted the church’s worldwide footprint—hospitals, schools, nunciatures—and the State Department’s recognition that the church can reach populations where the U.S. does not. That access, the panelists said, explains why the Holy See frequently mediates or serves as a bridge in conflict situations.

The session included questions from congressional staff, journalists and members of the public, which ranged from technical questions about how to become a diplomat to concerns about interreligious tensions and domestic political fallout from presidential statements. Panelists repeatedly returned to two themes: the Holy See’s combination of moral claims and on-the-ground humanitarian engagement, and the role of professional diplomats in managing tensions between states and the Vatican.

The briefing closed with an invitation for further conversation between panelists and attendees.