Pope Leo XIV navigated a difficult stretch of diplomatic water over Independence Day weekend, at a tense and delicate moment in U.S.-Vatican relations and a critical moment in global politics.
He did it by frankly acknowledging the realities of his personal connection to the United States and his role as universal pastor.
He “gets” the job he is in, and he also “gets” the people of his native country – the pre-eminent global power – and over the weekend, he found the way to demonstrate both things without compromising either.
While many Americans were taking part in backyard barbeques and taking in fireworks displays, the pontiff was on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, bringing the moral weight of his office to bear on the plight of migrants and appealing for solidarity and fellowship.
The pope did mark the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence on Saturday, however, with a letter extending his “heartfelt congratulations to all Americans” and urging citizens to work together “toward a more perfect union” in the present.
The letter urged the people of the United States to renew their “shared commitment to the promise of freedom, justice, opportunity and democracy.”
It also contained a trenchant appeal for the protection of all human life and for the defense of human dignity, especially for migrants.
Along with remarks the pope delivered remotely on the eve of the U.S. Independence Day, the pope’s letter avoided the twin dangers of narrow nationalism and artful – inauthentic – indifference.
The capstone was a visit to the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, on Saturday evening. Unannounced beforehand, the visit was a social call – fairly unusual for a pope – at the ambassador’s invitation.
The whole weekend had the potential to be particularly tough going for Leo.
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As supreme pastor of the universal Church, he isn’t supposed to play favorites. As sovereign of the Holy See, he is head of state. As a Chicago native and son of a U.S. Navy veteran who served with distinction in WWII, he is a citizen and a patriot.
In an exchange with a French journalist last month, on the 81st anniversary of the D-Day invasion that began the final push for the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny, Leo said he would like to visit Normandy in France, where Allied forces stormed the beaches.
“My father was there,” he said.
Leo, in short, articulated a vision of “the American experiment” and national ethos that did not gloss over tensions and difficulties either historical or present, but offered a view of an America called to be her “best self” in the community of nations and for the human family.
Unsurprisingly, the letter staunchly defended the God-given right to life and dignity as the bedrock of “principles that have guided the development” of the country, “each person being endowed with an inherent worth that calls for reverence, protection and care.”
Leo also discussed the centrality of religious liberty.
“Freedom of religion has long been central to the American promise,” Leo wrote, “protecting both individual dignity and the peaceful coexistence of a diverse people.”
“This same freedom has permitted the Catholic Church to take root and flourish within the United States,” Leo further wrote, “to the advantage not only of her own members, but of the entire nation.”
Leo noted the signal contributions of the Church and of the Catholic faithful to society in the United States, especially in the areas of education, healthcare, and more generally in the care of the poor and the least.
“As faithful sons and daughters of the Church,” the pontiff’s letter continued, “Catholics are called to imbue every dimension of their existence with the charity of Christ.”
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Leo’s lines called to mind James Gibbons – the second cardinal from the United States – who staunchly and cogently defended the American understanding and practice of religious liberty throughout his career.
Gibbons offered his defense at a time when Rome was wary of “the American experiment” and Catholic theological opinion, still reeling from the collapse of the ancien régime, was ambivalent – at best – toward republicanism in general and religious liberty in particular.
In an 1887 address in the Basilica of St. Mary in Trastevere, which Leo XIII had given to Gibbons as his cardinalatial “title” in Rome when he created Gibbons a cardinal, the ninth archbishop of Baltimore delivered a daring defense of American religious liberty.
Gibbons expressed his “deep sense of pride and gratitude,” at belonging “to a country where the civil government holds over us the aegis of its protection without interfering with us in the legitimate exercise of our sublime mission as ministers of the Gospel of Christ.”
The ninth archbishop of Baltimore expressed his gratitude “without closing [his] eyes to our shortcomings as a nation.”
Likewise, Leo XIV prayed that “Americans honor the courage and vision of those who came before them by strengthening their communities, respecting their differences and working together toward a more perfect union.”
The themes Leo addressed in his letter marking America’s 250th birthday were present also in remarks the pontiff offered the day before, when he accepted a prestigious award from the nation’s leading forum for constitutional and civic education and debate.
On July 3, Pope Leo XIV received – remotely – the 38th Liberty Medal of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
In his remarks to the Constitution Center, Leo set the tone for his whole Independence Day message, describing himself as “a son of this great country, founded by courageous men and women who dreamed of liberty and of a better life for themselves and for their children.”
“In these past two-hundred and fifty years,” Leo also said in accepting the award, “for so many peoples throughout the world, it was the firm resolve to achieve the noble vision of the nation’s founders that made America a byword for freedom.”
“As the country opened its doors to successive waves of immigrants,” Leo said that vision and resolve enabled “them and their children to play their part in shaping the future of the nation.”
Leo particularly remembered the signal service of the United States to the cause of freedom around the world in the 20th century.
“It was this same love of freedom that inspired the United States, in the darkest hours of the last century, at the time of the two world wars, to look beyond itself and, at great sacrifice, to champion the cause of freedom beyond its own borders,” he said.
“As every American knows,” the pontiff said, “the path to building a society that would embody those high ideals of liberty and justice for all was not always easy.”
“In many respects,” he said, “[it] is still a work in progress.”
“Indeed,” he said, “the effort to realize this vision is one that must be taken up anew in each generation and in the face of ever new challenges.”
He leaned into the tension, in other words, speaking at once as a citizen to his fellows and also as a pastor – a governor – with something to say both to and for the United States.
“I join you,” he said, “in asking God’s blessings upon America’s future, that the lofty ideals enshrined at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence may continue to guide the flourishing of the nation in unity, justice and peace.”
It is perhaps not a perfect coincidence that the current pontiff’s 19th century namesake, Leo XIII, happened also to be the pope who condemned the heresy of “Americanism” – and Gibbons the cardinal to whom Leo XIII wrote a letter, Testem benevolentiae nostrae, condemning it.
As Crux Now’s editor-in-chief has noted, “Americanism” has often been called a “phantom heresy” (blamed on a bad French translation of a biography treating the life of Paulist founder Father Isaac Hecker).
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It has been said, pretty much ever since, that the pope and the Vatican just don’t understand the United States.
That card is unavailable with Leo XIV on the See of Peter.
Follow Chris Altieri on X: @craltieri
