Our title might be reminiscent of that brilliant film called "An American in Paris" which was inspired by the famous composition George GershwinIf we were to approach Rome in a cinematic and American way, then we could also recall the famous film "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn i Gregory Peck in the main roles.
An American in Rome, more precisely in the Vatican, that planetary media topic last week, is Robert Prevost, the new pope. The very setting and many choreographic details were part of the electoral ritual in which the new pope was chosen. An unusual combination of old, centuries-old rules and traditional Catholic followers together with the curious new world from Instagram, various platforms and networks, which further created an atmosphere of spectacularity.
It seemed that a good part of the world had been following with great attention what was happening on the Roman-Vatican roof for two days, their gazes fixed on a single cumin tree, waiting for the smoke to emerge from it, and where, to make the drama even more attractive, a seagull was carefreely strolling.
American President Tramp was so impressed by the space of St. Peter's Basilica that the two of them met with Zelensky, that he then stated that he would like to have just such an environment for his office!
Returning to our topic, the American in the Vatican, for now we should limit ourselves to cautious impressions of the unusual pope, an outsider in the forecasts for the election of Pontifex Maximus, before the closing of those doors of the Sistine Chapel.
After the initial surprise, it was quickly learned that the new pope was an American from Chicago with a long missionary career in South America, having stayed in Peru for two decades, where he even received a Peruvian passport. From the corridors of the Roman Curia, it was quickly reported that the new pope was continuing the spiritual line Pope Francis by whose decision Robert Prevost was proclaimed cardinal two years ago.
It is believed that if by some miracle Pope Bergoglio was able to be part of the last conclave, he would have voted for the Prevost as the new pope. And according to the statements found, it is not impossible that Chapter XIV continues the tradition of his predecessor who, not coincidentally, was called - the pope of the global south.
It is certainly too early to conclude how much continuity there will be between the two popes, although there is a noticeable difference in their approach. While Pope Francis was quite spontaneous in his public activities, even prone to improvisation, which made him popular with the masses, the new pope is much more cautious, although not at the expense of quite precise views.
Let last week's election of Pope Leo XIV be an occasion for us to reflect on the historical relations between the Holy See and the United States of America.
The long and complicated relations between the two countries
"Relations of Lateral Empires" is the title of a notable book Frank Salt, which, after its Italian publication (published by Mondadori), was also published in America (published by Wday Random House). According to some, calling the USA and the Vatican empires represents a somewhat stronger lexical forcing, but the author of the book decided on such formulations, precisely taking into account the pretensions of the two states to a general, planetary mission - ideological and practical. Both have objective great power, each in its own way.
If strength connects the two states, it remains a rather bizarre moment that they were in very complicated relations for a long historical period, accompanied by high and undisguised distrust.
What was happening that prevented the US and the Holy See from fully normalizing and establishing full diplomatic relations, which only happened in 1984?
Historical facts show that the first official contact between representatives of the two countries took place in 1788, when Pope Pius VI sent his envoy to Paris to meet with the American ambassador to France Benjamin Franklin, otherwise a protagonist of the American Revolution. The Pope's very diplomatically formulated question was: "What would be the reaction of the American president if the Holy See requested that one of its bishops be a diplomatic representative in the American federation"?
The US President's response Washington was also characterized by a cautious diplomatic style. "Our revolution aimed to conquer all freedoms, including religious ones."
The American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution defined the principle of religious freedom, with almost no mention of the church, much less its institutional power in society. So, it is more about the principle of religious freedom (in the plural) as an integral part of a pluralistic society and individual freedoms.
The US president's rather general and reserved response was interpreted as permission for the pope to appoint a priest, a Jesuit. John Karolyi as a bishop in the American federation. (John Karolyi is also remembered as the founder of the famous Georgetown University in Washington, which is still one of the most prestigious institutions for studying international relations and diplomacy.)
So, it was a discreet beginning of relations without establishing the usual diplomatic ranks.
However, even these undefined relations were completely interrupted by the decision of the American Congress on February 28, 1867, to eliminate the funding of the American representative in the Vatican from the state budget.
This meant that the American mission to the Vatican would soon be closed. This decision, which at first glance seemed to be of a financial nature, had another explanation.
The first generations of the new American nation were predominantly Protestant, many of them coming from European families that were also marked by religious wars. An integral part of their views was often anti-Catholicism. Thus, for a long period, almost two centuries, the American political elite saw the Pope as the head of a foreign religion. An integral part of the prejudice against the center of Catholicism was the fear that the Pope intended to interfere in the internal affairs of the new state through religious missionaries, even to threaten its independence.
"The Pope is deeply offended by the decision of the Congress..." he wrote in a report from Rome. Rufus King to the US Secretary of State.
The experience he had is very characteristic of this period. Gaetano Bedini, the apostolic nuncio to Brazil, who was the first Vatican diplomat to travel to the United States in 1851. (Bedini's account of that trip has recently been made available in the newly opened so-called secret Vatican archives.) The Vatican diplomat experienced various mistreatments during his stay in America, from a harsh attack by the press that demanded his expulsion to an unusual episode in church when a Protestant woman told him that until then she had been convinced that Catholic priests had horns on their heads!
However, the views of the American political elite gradually changed over time, especially in the early 20th century, among other things with the arrival of millions of new immigrants, this time mostly Catholics and Jews. They quickly became Americans, establishing cultural centers and associations. However, proposals from American Catholic centers to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican continued to be blocked.
The visit of the Vatican Secretary of State is considered significant on the path to normalizing relations. Pacelia (future Pope Pius XII) America in 1936. Although Roosevelt He did not receive them at the White House, but at a private residence. This meeting brought results. Roosevelt had no intention of changing the decision of Congress, but this meeting marked the beginning of the practice of sending personal envoys of the American president to the Vatican and envoys of the Pope to the USA.
Not even the first Catholic president in US history, John F. Kennedy, did not change anything significant in his relations with the Holy See. On the eve of the 1960 election, Kennedy tried very hard not to be perceived by the American public as a "son of Catholic Boston."
He avoided meeting the Pope, and when it happened in Rome in July 1963, he told the Pope's protocol people not to expect him to bow traditionally during the meeting due to "pain in his spine" - which everyone understood well.
It is difficult to say whether Kennedy, during his full term, and potentially a second, could have contributed to the normalization of diplomatic relations. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, four months after the meeting in Rome.
Meanwhile, the Irish, Italian, and Polish communities are becoming more influential in America, and are expressing a willingness to vote overwhelmingly for Republican presidential candidates.
Several elements, politically significant, pointed to changes both in America and internationally. The first to realize this, apparently, was the Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan, Republican presidential candidate in the 1980 elections. With the victory of Reagan (who was voted for by Catholics) and new moments in international relations, the time for establishing full diplomatic relations between the USA and the Holy See was approaching.
According to testimonies, well documented in many books, an unusual protocol position is also described. Pia Lagia, the Pope's personal envoy to the US, still without diplomatic status. For example, during the inauguration ceremony of Reagan as US President in January 1981. Protocol stipulated that the first to greet the new US president were ambassadors accredited to the US by foreign governments.
Then came the president's big Hollywood film buddies - most of them much better actors than Reagan. The first in this group was the famous and influential Frank Sinatra, then the charming Gregory Peck, then the famous beauty, then already in her later years, Katharine Hepburn itd.
Somewhere between the ambassadors and the Hollywood actors, a protocol position was found for the Vatican representative who, in a year or so, with the establishment of full diplomatic relations, would become the first apostolic nuncio to the USA - in layman's terms, the first ambassador of the Holy See in Washington. So, in 1984, by agreement between Reagan and Pope John Paul II Diplomatic relations are established at the highest level.
The normalization of diplomatic relations becomes only a segment of the broader alliance that President Reagan and Pope Wojtyła have achieved. It is believed that one of the central strategic themes was the fight against communism, the destabilization of the Soviet Union, in which Poland was one of the main laboratories.
This was the main subject of discussion during the first meeting between Reagan and Wojtyła, in June 1982. At that time, unreserved support for the Polish independent trade union Solidarity was agreed upon, as stated Jim Nicholson (sixth American ambassador to the Holy See, appointed in 2001) in his book “The USA and the Holy See”.
A common strategic area was also Latin America, i.e. the worrying phenomenon of the rise of leftist political parties and leaders of Marxist inspiration on what many consider to be the "most Catholic continent."
Many, therefore, tend to attribute the decisive external role in the fall of communism to President Reagan and Pope John Paul II, who in their interesting biographies were also actors - Reagan in Hollywood, Wojtyła in Polish amateur theater. In other words, the two former actors raised the Iron Curtain, marking the end of the Cold War and the beginning of new plays in a new season of international life.
The Vatican is considered to be too complex a spiritual-state entity to participate in the victorious triumphalism after the Cold War. The same Pope John Paul, after the joint victory against communism, issued criticisms - from the inhumane aspects of capitalism and globalization, to open disagreement with American policy towards Iraq, Cuba...
The funeral of John Paul II was attended by the then American president George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, two former presidents Clinton i Bush the ElderThis gesture undoubtedly spoke volumes about the American attitude towards Pope Wojtyla, but also about the new pages of relations between the USA and the Holy See.
Two presidents made significant contributions to the growth of relations between the United States and the Holy See, Barak Obama i Pope Benedict XVI.
When the two met in Rome on July 10, 2009, it was also stated that it was a meeting of the blessed.
Namely, among the many symbols and interesting facts that accompanied the meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama, one of a linguistic nature should be highlighted.
The name Barack is present in the dialect spoken in the part of East Africa where Obama's father is from. It is actually a shortened version of the more common name Mubarak, which means blessed in Arabic. Benedict (Latin Benedictus - Italian Benedetto) also means blessed. So, the namesakes, the two blessed ones, met in Rome.
Catholics in America today make up a quarter of the population, or just over sixty million. In addition to the traditional Catholic communities (Irish, Italian, Polish), the Latino community, immigrants, mostly from Latin America, is on the rise in America. Of course, they are all Americans first, then Catholics.
Rerum Novarum (New Things)
And finally, with an American pope, a great chapter in the history of US-Vatican relations ends in an exciting, at times traumatic, but also with periods of shared success.
There is still great interest in the profile of the new pope and his future activities.
He is not expected to be a predominantly geopolitical pope like the Pole John Paul II, who was also called a "geopolitician in papal garb." Nor is he expected to have the profile of the refined doctrinaire theologian, the German Benedict XVI, who was perhaps led to his resignation by religious exaggerations, a first in the history of popes and the Catholic Church.
Perhaps the choice of his ecclesiastical name, Leo XIV, will help us somewhat to decipher the priority of the new pope's actions. Namely, the last pope under that name, Love XIII was pope between 1878 and 1903. He is remembered primarily for the encyclical rerum Novarum, (translated from Latin: “On New Things”), which he sent to all Catholic bishops in May 1891. The subtitle of the encyclical was “The Rights and Obligations of Labor and Capital.” It is a document that still forms the basis of Catholic social doctrine today.
If Leo XIII defined the economic and social doctrine of the church in the face of the challenges of the industrial revolution, then the new Pope Leo XIV opens up the challenges of prioritizing confrontation with the times symbolized by another revolution, the digital one. And with all the uncertainties of the world in which we live.
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