-Analysis-
ROME — Those who have been analyzing Pope Francis’s pontificate have mostly focused on his call for a Church of the poor, his preference for the marginalized and vulnerable over the powerful — and his deep connection with ordinary people. This picture of Francis’ legacy has led many observers to assume that he and his model of Church paid less attention than his predecessors to the role Vatican diplomacy has traditionally played in preventing and mediating conflicts around the world.
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Yet what happened on Saturday morning, during the interludes of the final farewell to the Argentine Pope, may have (rightly) swept away that one-sided interpretation. The spontaneous face-to-face encounter between U.S. Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the grand setting of St. Peter’s Basilica was a diplomatic masterpiece by the Holy See to instantaneously put it back at the center of the world stage.
It was certainly a fleeting success, perhaps an ephemeral one, given the complexity of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the unpredictable character of at least one of the protagonists.
Distinctive form of diplomacy
Nevertheless, it was an achievement, a small but significant step, made possible by the vigilant work of a group committed to building bridges and opening channels of dialogue even in the most extreme circumstances. With those two hastily arranged chairs under Michelangelo’s dome, Vatican diplomacy attempted to rekindle a conversation between Trump and Zelensky, following the ambush the latter suffered at the White House.
It was a way for the Holy See to reassert itself at a moment when its relations with both presidents had been strained. Trump, for instance, had been highly displeased with the letter Francis sent to the U.S. bishops at the start of 2025, in which he condemned the deportation of migrants (often in chains) as a violation of human dignity. Zelensky, for his part, had been deeply irritated by an interview in which Francis, while pleading the cause of mediation, seemed to suggest that he should consider raising the white flag.
It’s about encouraging dialogue with all parties, including uncomfortable partners.
In short, Vatican diplomacy continues, to the best of its ability, to monitor the world’s most volatile regions — and, no, Pope Francis in no way scaled back this activity, which remains the Church’s strongest institutional instrument for promoting peace.
It is a distinctive form of diplomacy, as Francis himself recalled earlier this year in his traditional January address to the numerous members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. It is about moving from the logic of conflict to the logic of encounter, about encouraging dialogue with all parties, including uncomfortable partners and those with whom it might not seem legitimate to negotiate.
In this file photo from 2017, Cardinal Pietro Parolin meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Parolin, the architect of Pope Francis’ diplomacy, is seen as a possible successor in the Conclave that begins next week. Credit Image: © Metzel Mikhail/TASS/ZUMA
Moscow, Beijing and beyond
Under Francis, the task of overseeing ecclesial geopolitics has been entrusted to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was trained in the Secretariat of State during the time of Cardinal Agostino Casaroli in the latter years of the Cold War.
The Church operates at various levels in some of the world’s hottest and most devastated areas. It sends food parcels and essential supplies through missions directed by the Pope’s almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski of Poland. It facilitates prisoner exchanges between warring parties. It works, as in Ukraine, to secure the return of children deported by the Russians. It dispatches authoritative religious figures to conflict zones to better assess complex realities, and it fully supports ecclesial organizations like the Community of Sant’Egidio in their humanitarian efforts.
Beyond these initiatives, Vatican diplomacy also seeks to act more systematically, fostering rapprochements between states, as it did between the United States and Cuba with Francis already at the helm, or supporting peace processes like the one that unfolded in Colombia a few years ago.
Putin’s patriarch
Ultimately, its inter-religious initiatives may be the most significant, especially in this era. There is a sustained effort to have the world’s major religions work together to promote peace and coexistence, proposing a shared collective ethos rooted in their spiritual traditions.
Within this framework, Francis and Vatican diplomacy worked to improve relations with the Patriarch of Moscow and the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader Kirill remains a staunch ally of Putin. The hope has been to soften or shift his positions. At the same time, efforts have continued to solidify a diplomatic channel with Beijing through the agreement on the appointment of bishops, aimed at securing greater freedom for Christians in China.
These operations carry enormous risks and unknowns, and at times they risk entangling Catholicism itself with autocratic regimes. Such thorny questions will no doubt be among the key themes of the imminent conclave.
