The Pope’s passport and the silence of Rome 2025/05/14

Written by Ricardo Periza*

In the Vatican there are no accidents. There is a temporary stop. There is silence. There are symbols. Often, there are decisions that define the water gatherings. This was in 1978, when Karol Wojtyła Pope was chosen as John Paul II. Polish. Not Italian. No German. Polish.

This origin was not lucky. It was almost a strategic and geopolitical play, disguised as a spiritual event. A gesture aimed at the Soviet Union, to the communist bloc, to the east, which was still covered with iron curtain. The Catholic Church, which rarely behaves in a hurry, knew that it could not remain outside history. He chose the shepherd who understood the oppressed peoples because he came from one. His papacy was a silent revolution that contributed – with prayers, existence and words – the demolition of the Berlin Wall. It was a sign. And I worked.

Today, after decades, Roma sent a message again. Unexpectedly, but on an equal foot. Leo XIV – the first American Pope – cannot be read as a lucky event. As happened with John Paul II, his nationality speaks. The challenges of its origin. He holds his passport with more than two centuries of modern history, dominance, contradictions, promises and failures.

Why now? Why the United States?

The answer can be in the context. If the great challenge in the twentieth century is totalitarianism, the opponent today is more accurate: emptiness. Daily nihilism. Division of meaning. Churches no longer breath by political persecution, but by spiritual indifference. In this field where Catholicism needs to speak again.

Leo XIV is not the “modern” Pope to come from the United States. This is because, in his body, the culture of instant, consumption and algorithm. So far, he chose faith. He chose silence. He embraced the seamless. In this contradiction, Pontevity’s opportunity is played: bringing his faith in the heart of liquid modernity. Not from the outside, but from the inside.

For centuries, the United States of Catholic was a debt for immigrants: Irish, Italians and Mexicans. It is rarely associated with power elites. With Liu 14, it changes. Not because of a gesture of ambition, but for a deep understanding of the moment we live: the need for a message that the reconciliation of technology has passed away with the goal, an abundance with morals, and freedom with responsibility.

But there is another political reading – and more urgent – than your choice. In a deeply accused country, as part of the population adopted radical positions under the slogan of Make America again (Maga), the Pope born on American soil can become more than a spiritual leader: in the weight of morals. In the face of intolerance, racism and exclusion that embodies Trump’s discourse, Liu fourteen could represent an alternative to the American leadership: sympathy, human, open to the other. A driving is not imposed from strength, but it is convinced of sympathy.

For many – especially within the United States itself. His character can be a beacon. guide. A reference is able to break the logic of disguised hate as an national. The Pope, who remembers that Christian faith does not revolve around the walls, sanctions, or excellence, but rather from reception, justice and mercy.

But there is more. LEO XIV is not an exceptional American car. It is the person who lived outside his country, who suffered from the global south is not from theory or diplomacy, but from daily life. He lived more than a decade in Peru, where he was working in weak societies, learning the language and embraced another identity: Latin America. In fact, it also has the nationality of Peru. This details make them a reliable interlocutor of millions of immigrants who today feel the orphans of spiritual and political representation.

On the borders, where human dignity is tested many times, his voice can have a different resonance. It is not a distant observer, but rather the priest who knows poverty, exclusion, and roots to two places. Leo XIV can talk to immigrants are not a problem, but as a living aspect of Christian tolerance. As a challenge and a promise.

Facing the walls that rise, its papal can be a bridge. In the face of the laws that are excluded, his word can be remembered that no one is illegal in the eyes of a merciful God. In the face of fear, rest. Confronting contempt, dignity.

The Catholic Church says something to the world again. Not with slogans, but with elections. Not with political sermons, but with gestures loaded with history. Just as John Paul II was a spiritual weight of the Soviet Union, Leo XIV could have a moral weight for the West, who seems to have lost his way. It is not a matter of returning to the past, but rather to restore meaning.

Rome does not wear. When he talks, he does this in centuries.

Often, choose someone who embodies more than one ministry: an answer.

*International lawyer.