The Pope's Body: Global Chaos vs. Diplomatic Wisdom

di: Marcello Neri

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Francis’s silence and his impediment may help the Vatican and Parolin’s discreet mediation and work for peace in this moment.

The world seems to be slipping away from the fingers of the global powers, and perhaps as never before, we feel the urgency of a well-balanced word from Pope Francis. His hospitalization has left our world feeling a sense of loneliness that haunts people’s lives. Our time seems really to need the Pope’s deeds and words to find a way out of the mess we got ourselves into. And yet, what we probably miss is not so much Francis’ words but his physical presence.

There was a time when the body of the king and that of the Pope were a sort of power’s sacrament – a visible sign of government and order. From the very beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has had a corporeal relationship with people and humanity’s dramas. He has touched them and allowed them to be touched by them. He has gone to places where, for security reasons, it would have been better not to go: to Iraq during the pandemic to meet the Shia spiritual leader Al-Sistani, to Bangui in the Central African Republic to open the Holy Door on the occasion of the Jubilee of Mercy; to South Sudan for promoting reconciliation and peace processes (just to mention a few of his most daring journeys).

Perhaps we are missing his physical presence in today’s world – a body that is a sacrament not of power but of care and mercy. We feel Pope Francis’ corporeal absence and visible leadership, the material tangibility of a body that does not take sides but welcomes everybody. His hospitalization has left the world without a visible sign of passion and care for the destiny of our shared humanity.

The silence and visible absence of the Pope seem to have serious repercussions on the diplomatic mission of the Holy See. They seem to, but perhaps this is not the case. At this moment, such silence and absence may leave the field open to the wisdom of Vatican diplomacy – which needs discretion and strict confidentiality to be effective.

In a lengthy post on X, Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky wrote of his phone conversation with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Zelensky recognizes that the “voice of the Holy See is of great importance on the path to peace” and shows that diplomatic contact between Russia and the Vatican is active and up to date. A list of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia has been sent to the Holy See – a reminder that a reciprocal exchange of prisoners is pivotal for the truce that the United States is brokering.

Zelensky shows that the Holy See, particularly Cardinal Parolin, is not prevented from operating by the Pope’s impediment. Today, the Vatican diplomacy is talking with the Ukrainians, with the Russians, and with the Americans (the dialogue with the European Union has never ceased during the war in Ukraine).

Of course, we know that because Zelensky needs not only military support from the European Union but also – and above all – a reliable channel of diplomatic mediation (which, as of now, could be offered perhaps only by the Holy See). It’s so despite many tensions in the past with Pope Francis and the Holy See, who have resisted the temptation to become a pawn of one side in the Ukrainian imbroglio,

The Holy See seems to be the only genuinely independent diplomatic mediator – a kind every party could need now. If we have crossed the threshold of the upheaval of the world order as we have known it in the last 80 years,[1] then all the balances that held such order together have been shattered. In a situation like this, where nobody trusts anybody anymore, perhaps even a fine-tuned, well-balanced statement by Pope Francis could be counterproductive. It could be because there is no realistic guarantee that the partners who would have to act on such a statement would behave accordingly.

In this context, the Pope’s silence and physical absence could favor the diplomatic endeavor in which Cardinal Parolin is engaged. Suppose the worldwide rearmament race and the many local conflicts that could quickly escalate into a world war will be slowly channeled into a lasting cold truce. In that case, this will also be owed to the silent, invisible, practical, and concrete diplomatic mediation that the Holy See is wisely carrying on.