Pope Leo’s Grand Tour of South America Sets Collision Course With the ‘Donroe Doctrine’

Pope Leo XIV’s planned visit to South America this fall brings the Vicar of Christ to the geographical doorstep of President Trump, who has clashed with the pontiff and made the continent a centerpiece of his second term foreign policy vision. The pope, the Vatican announced, will travel to the New World from the Eternal City from November 6-17, with stops in Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. The journey is a homecoming for Pope Leo, who though born at Chicago lived in Peru for two decades, even becoming a citizen in 2015. He served as Bishop of Chiclayo before being summoned to Rome by Pope Francis. Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio at Buenos Aires, never managed to visit his homeland during his 12-year pontificate. While Pope Leo has traveled internationally before, an apostolic journey is a more formal engagement that engages the pope’s status as both religious leader and head of state. The Vatican explains that such a journey is “a unique and historic moment for any nation privileged to receive the presence of the Holy Father.”Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, and Peru’s president, Keiko Fujimori, are both conservatives aligned with Mr. Trump. A rightward shift appears to be taking hold across the region, with Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia, and others also swerving in a conservative direction. Earlier this month Peru joined the 47th president’s Shield of the Americas, which aims to battle drug cartels both legally and militarily.“They now call it the ‘Donroe Doctrine’” is what Mr. Trump proclaimed in January about the realignment after the successful operation to capture President Nicolás Maduro at Caracas. Mr. Trump has also sought to rename the Gulf of Mexico and speculated about acquiring Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. A leaked Pentagon memorandum indicated that America is considering backing Argentina in the dispute over the Falkland Islands.Mr. Trump also vowed that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.” The “Donroe Doctrine” supposes that the 47th president is authoring a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which President Monroe articulated in his State of the Union Address of 1823. The doctrine declares that the “American continents” are “not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”The pope declined Mr. Trump’s invitation to visit America for the nation’s 250th birthday, instead spending July 4 with migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa. In April the pontiff sharply criticized America and Israel’s war against Iran, warning of a “delusion of omnipotence” and contending that “God does not bless any conflict.” The pope has also said that the fight against the Islamic Republic does not amount to a “just war.”Mr. Trump thundered in turn that the pope is “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.” The president reckoned that the pope is a “very liberal person and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime. He’s a man that doesn’t think that we should be going with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world. I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”To that Pope Leo responded, “I have no fear neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel. And that’s what I believe I am called to do.” The pope added, though, that “I do not look at my role as being political, a politician” and that he had no desire to “get into a debate” with Mr. Trump.A possible flashpoint that could emerge during the pope’s visit is immigration. In November Pope Leo denounced Mr. Trump’s harsh border policy as “extremely disrespectful, to say the least.” He added, “We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have. If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts. There’s a system of justice.” Mr. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, replied that “a secure border saves lives. We’re going to enforce the law and by doing that we save a lot of lives.”Planning for the politics of the apostolic journey comes as Pope Leo faces challenges in his spiritual realm. A schism in the Church between the Vatican and an excommunicated but powerful hard right splinter group, the Society of St. Pius X, remains unhealed. Some prominent Churchmen also appear to be probing a rebellion against the pope with respect to the question of restrictions on the Tridentine or Latin Mass.

Pope Leo’s Grand Tour of South America Sets Collision Course With the ‘Donroe Doctrine’

Pope Leo’s Grand Tour of South America Sets Collision Course With the ‘Donroe Doctrine’

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