The quiet power of papal diplomacy

The Holy See has no army, but it has reach, longevity and access that no state can match.

“The Pope! How many divisions has he got?” This remark, most often attributed to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin during a 1935 exchange with French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval, sums up how little was understood then, and how little is understood today, about the reality of papal power and influence.

Although the pope indeed has no military divisions, he is a diplomatic and moral force to be reckoned with on the international stage. This is often ignored or ridiculed by those who lack historical awareness and suffer from religious illiteracy. Yet there are few world leaders who do not want to meet the pope and be photographed with him. Why is that?

The oldest diplomatic service

First, the institution of the papacy is uniquely experienced in having an uninterrupted diplomatic service that began well over 1,500 years ago, when fourth- and fifth-century popes sent the first legates to the imperial authorities. In the sixth century, this became a more permanent presence, in the person of the apocrisiarius, the pope’s resident representative at the imperial court in Constantinople.

The practice of the currently still-existing form of permanent diplomatic missions headed by an apostolic nuncio started in the 15th century. In the 16th century, this practice was written into canon law, under which the apostolic nuncio is not only an ambassador in the classical diplomatic sense but also the direct liaison of the pope to the local Catholic Church. It is ultimately this development, in which the temporal and spiritual dimensions of the pope’s authority were formally united and which Pope Francis recently reasserted through a reform of the diplomatic service, that makes papal diplomacy such a formidable and unique institution. More on that later.

Church, city-state and sovereign

Second, it needs to be understood that there is an important difference, also on the world stage, between the Vatican (or Vatican City), the Holy See and the Roman Catholic Church, all headed by the same pope, also called the Roman Pontiff, currently Leo XIV. Although these three entities are deeply interconnected, they have clearly defined separate roles and different legal standing.

What the Roman Catholic Church is speaks for itself: It is first and foremost a worldwide Christian community where believers join and practice their faith. Organizationally, the Church has a hierarchical structure and is represented in every country in some shape or form. Most often, this presence is official, through dioceses headed by bishops and made up of parishes, alongside a wide variety of religious orders and lay organizations governed by canon law.

The Church, considered the “living body of Christ,” may also be represented unofficially, though no less importantly, through (underground) local Catholic communities of clergy and laity in places where there are no properly functioning dioceses. Such communities are, for example, widely present in China, a country that does not tolerate freedom of religion and does not recognize the universality of the Church or the pope as its head, with canonical jurisdiction over all its followers worldwide.

Instead, China is forcing adherents of the Catholic faith to become part of the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). The CCPA is not formally recognized by the Roman Catholic Church itself. But in the interest of the faithful, the Church does allow cooperation where possible, and it has a still-secret agreement with the Chinese state, first signed in 2018, on the appointment of bishops acceptable to both the pope and the Chinese government.

The Chinese situation is a good example of how throughout the history of the Roman Catholic Church there have often been tensions and even conflicts with state authorities over the appointment of bishops. Interestingly, China is not the only country that demands veto power in relation to the appointment of bishops. Some democratic countries that do have freedom of religion also hold on to this practice, for example in Austria, where the appointment of new bishops must be approved by the council of ministers. These examples in themselves are a testimony to the weight of the Catholic Church’s position in society; why else would secular governments want to play a role in the appointment of spiritual leaders?

The Vatican is a sovereign city-state created in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty with Italy, which finally settled the long dispute over the lost territories of the former Papal States. Those territories had passed to the newly unified Kingdom of Italy during Italian unification, which ended in 1870. The Papal States had existed for more than 1,100 years. Since 1929, Vatican City has been recognized under international law as an independent, sovereign state. It has a very small territory and additional extra-territorial properties scattered throughout and around Rome, as well as international borders, citizens, a passport, laws and all the institutions of state, such as a court system, that go with it.

Vatican City lies within Rome, inside Italy’s borders, but is independent of it. It is an absolute monarchy, with the pope as head of state. Therefore, there is no parliament and there are no elections. Laws are passed by the pope and upheld by the Vatican’s own police (gendarmerie) and court system. The famous Swiss Guards can be seen as the military force of Vatican City and the pope’s personal guard regiment. The Vatican is not a member of the European Union. However, the Holy See has permanent observer status at the United Nations and takes part in many other international organizations.

The Holy See is a sovereign entity recognized as such under international law, and it is best described as the ultimate governing body, headed by the pope, that brings together Vatican City and the Roman Catholic Church, the temporal and the spiritual. The Holy See legally represents both the Roman Catholic Church and Vatican City State, and it is the sovereign entity with which the diplomatic world deals. Vatican City itself provides the sovereign territory that gives the Holy See the standing it requires in international law. Before 1870, that temporal base was the Papal States.

The Holy See even has a 325-year-old diplomatic academy, the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, where future apostolic nuncios and other diplomatic personnel are prepared for service in the Holy See’s worldwide diplomatic corps. The Holy See maintains full diplomatic relations with 184 states and is very active at the UN and other international organizations. Throughout much of its history, it has often played an important, though mostly unreported, role in peace negotiations and settlements between warring parties across the globe. This is nonetheless where its diplomatic relevance is most visible in secular terms.

Papal soft power

Third, why does the Holy See’s diplomacy matter?

What makes the Holy See unique in its diplomatic efforts and in international relations more generally is that, unlike any other recognized sovereign entity and despite its tiny territory and the absence of military or economic might, it has very large numbers of people (both lay and clergy), solid structures, and human intelligence on the ground everywhere in the world – while itself operating mostly neutrally and being regarded as such.

The Holy See is also, because of its lack of military or economic might, an entity that is not threatening to most countries and hence can project an almost ideal form of soft power.

This has much to do with its core mission, inspired by the Gospels, though not always honored in the past, to bring peace and to care for the poor and the sick. For a sovereign entity in international diplomacy, that is a unique combination.

The Holy See, especially represented in the person and office of the pope, therefore has a strong moral standing, which it expresses through the pontiff’s writings as well as through his diplomatic interventions and public statements on international affairs.

Where papal diplomacy has worked

For his historic June 10, 1963, address at American University, calling for a new effort to make peace with the Soviet Union, United States President John F. Kennedy was much inspired by Pope John XXIII’s memorable encyclical Pacem in Terris, published only two months prior on April 11, 1963. Even more impactful was the vital role that the Polish Pope John Paul II, elected in 1978, played in the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. This followed his repeated calls for respecting human dignity for all peoples and his quiet but powerful diplomacy supporting dissident groups, especially Poland’s highly effective Solidarity trade union movement. Solidarity was founded in 1980 and, according to its longtime leader and later Polish President Lech Walesa, the 1979 visit of the pope to Poland was a significant factor in its creation.

In more recent times, the effectiveness of papal diplomacy was clearly visible when Pope Francis, through public statements and personal diplomatic intervention, contributed substantially to the peace process and a ceasefire in South Sudan. In April 2019, he received President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar at a spiritual retreat in the Vatican, begging them to stop the killing. The gesture helped consolidate the Revitalized Peace Agreement signed in Addis Ababa the previous September, and it opened the way to the Rome dialogue brokered by the Community of Sant’Egidio.

The Holy See, with the help of the local Catholic bishops, also played a significant role in the peace negotiations between Colombia and the rebel movement FARC between 2012 and 2016 while the local Catholic bishops in parallel continue to facilitate dialogue where they can. In the current war between Russia and Ukraine, the Holy See maintains direct diplomatic contacts with both sides and has been primarily involved in humanitarian issues, including the return of prisoners of war and of abducted children to their families.

More recently, the Holy See went further by sending its Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, to Moscow on a peace mission. The same proactive role applies to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where, among others, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, serves as a trusted interlocutor for Israelis and Palestinians, including the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and the Israeli government, on humanitarian matters. I saw this at work when I visited the Patriarch in Jerusalem and his flock in Bethlehem in early 2026.

Read more on Religion

• The West’s religious illiteracy and its geopolitical consequences
• The election of Pope Leo XIV: Geopolitics of the papacy
• The age of substitute religions

These are just some recent examples of papal diplomacy. Another is how the Holy See, again mostly through the voice of the pope, is influencing the public debate and subsequent policymaking on technological, economic and other developments, such as the highly contested question of artificial intelligence. Pope Leo XIV writes in his first encyclical:

The danger of humanity becoming a victim of its own achievements was already clearly recognized by Saint Paul VI, who warned that “the most extraordinary scientific progress, the most astounding technical feats and the most amazing economic growth, unless accompanied by authentic moral and social progress, will in the long run go against man.” For this reason, technological progress – valuable in itself – requires careful discernment of the anthropological vision that guides it and the ends it pursues.

The papal encyclical Magnifica Humanitas on AI received widespread and mostly positive international media coverage. Leaders in the AI industry were eager to be seen with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on May 25, 2026, when the much-anticipated publication was officially presented. That Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah spoke at that event is telling. Equally revealing is how, since the encyclical, the public debate on AI has increasingly called for more stringent regulation, a debate on ethical questions and the involvement of faith communities in setting the necessary guardrails on development and deployment. In a recent themed issue of The Economist, the leader – “Could AIs become conscious?” – quoted from Leo’s AI encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.

In 2015, Pope Francis published his encyclical Laudato Si’ on the care we are called to take of our common home. As he wrote: “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.” The papal document has been discussed in international policymaking and continues to be an important source of guidance for legislators and NGOs dealing with environmental and climate issues.

These cases underline the enduring relevance of the Holy See as a force to pay attention to in international affairs, including on any current affairs impacting the lives of ordinary citizens. The pope’s public words on the environment or AI are not exceptional. Because of the media attention they attracted, they are simply a more visible expression of the normally quieter power of the Holy See’s diplomacy and messaging.

However, most politicians and media merely see the words, actions and inactions of the pope and the Holy See through a purely political lens. They generally fail to understand the carefully deliberated, multilayered message being transmitted, one that combines pastoral, theological, philosophical, anthropological, historical and political insights from a specifically broad papal vantage point no other world leader has. That is what makes papal diplomacy and messaging so uniquely relevant, and so widely misunderstood.

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