Trump asks the Vatican to sever relations with China: a claim without reason. In fact there is one

Donald Trump wants to enlist the Vatican in the new cold war against China. Expected by the end of the month in Rome, where it should be found French Pope, the US Secretary of State has been preceded by a threat. “Two years ago, the Holy See reached an agreement with the Communist Party of China, hoping to help Chinese Catholics, Trump’s geopolitical right hand tweeted, but the CCP’s abuse of the faithful has only gotten worse. . The Vatican would put its moral authority at risk if it renewed the agreement. ” In other words, the Holy See must break relations with China.

Two years ago, the Holy See reached an agreement with the Communist Party of China, hoping to help China’s Catholics. However, the CCP’s abuse of the faithful has only gotten worse. The Vatican endangers its moral authority if it renews the deal. https://t.co/fl0TEnYxKS

– Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) September 19, 2020

Thinking of intimidating the Holy See with a tweet means not understanding anything about Vatican diplomacy and the politics of the popes. But it would be wrong Mike pompeo attributing an error to it. His statement is a reflection of the delirium Narcissistic character that characterizes Trump’s politics and has made him lose the trust of several Western partners.

A few days ago, the United States found itself totally isolated in the United Nations Security Council when it tried to impose sanctions onIran. Furthermore, the clumsy attempt to use the nuclear deal (signed at that time by the US, France, England, Germany and China with Tehran) to hit Iran with new sanctions, it collided with a strong no from London, Paris and Berlin: Washington, in fact, officially withdrew from the deal in 2018.

Trump’s attempt to pressure Pope Francis to follow him into full confrontation with Beijing is equally intended to fail. Pope Francis is perfectly aware of the authoritarian character of the Chinese regime and does not hide that the agreement with Beijing is an unequal agreement, in which Xi Jinping occupies a position of strength. But it is the first step to finally normalize relations between the Holy See and China and therefore the Argentine Pope is determined renew the agreement on the appointment of bishops, which is about to expire, and continue the path traveled.

Furthermore, Trump’s claim is unfounded. the U.S they did not interrupt relations with Moscow even during the cold war, when Stalin and Brezhnev reigned. Nor in Washington would anyone think of calling their ambassador from Beijing.

When Trump visited Francis in 1917, the pontiff said he wanted above all to “listen.” For three years, the Pope listened and saw what line the Trump administration has followed internationally. A systematic uprooting of multilateralism. Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, canceled the climate deal, did not vote on the UN convention on migrants, withdrew the United States from UNESCO and the UN Human Rights Commission. It has canceled the INF agreement on nuclear missiles with Russia, it is not willing to extend the Open Skies treaty that allows the US and Russia reciprocal air control over each other’s military activities.

To these savage kicks against the institutional architecture, which for decades has guaranteed global balance, albeit in an imperfect or incomplete or sometimes questionable way, the US president added in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic his withdrawal from theWorld Health Organization with the ridiculous accusation that it would have been dominated by China.

Thus, an unprecedented and currently unprecedented rift was created between Trump’s America and the Vatican. impassable. From John XXIII to Ratzinger, from Paul VI to John Paul II to Pope Bergoglio, the popes have always promoted multilateralism as an instrument to guarantee peace and the development of the “human family.” Therefore, from the first time since the war Washington it has lost the role of reference to be dealt with by the Holy See (sometimes in agreement or disagreement as during the pontificate of John Paul II, but always in dialogue).
The pandemic has aggravated the distance due to the unconscious underestimation of the phenomenon by Trump and the blunt unavailability of his administration to work on a common project of “vaccine for all” around the world.

Politicians and diplomats have long known that the history of the Beijing plots that “would have prevented us from understanding in time” the danger of the virus is simply fool. Bob Woodward, in his latest book of interviews with the US president himself, documents that Trump had already been fully informed about the enormous danger of the virus. But instead he preferred to talk for weeks about the “hoaxes” spread by Democrats and the influence that “comes … and then a day passes.” Not exactly the best business card to stand in front of Pope Francis and publicly incite him to join a crusade against China.

But there is an underlying reason for the bravado of Pompeo’s tweet, accompanied by an article by the US secretary of state himself in the magazine. First things, in which he warns the Vatican not to turn a blind eye to the persecution of the Chinese authorities against the Catholic Church, to the oppression of the population Uigur, on Beijing’s disregard for human rights.

Trump is preparing for the decisive battle of the elections and intends to mobilize the most traditionalist and conservative Catholics, who oppose the reformism of Francisco, presenting himself as a true defender of Christianity and gathering around him the Catholic and evangelical-fundamentalist electorate.

The former nuncio Viganò, who requested the resignation Francesco’s, he’s already moved. In recent months, he has positioned himself among right-wing American extremists, promoting a call to denounce the pandemic as a tool to trample on fundamental freedoms and freedom of worship. Then, with demonstrations against the racism from the police, sided with Trump with a letter proclaiming that there was a “battle between the children of light and the children of darkness.” Now she has promoted a national rosary so that the Lord’s will be heard in the November presidential elections: “Let us pray for the United States of America; we pray for our president; let us pray for his victory ”.

These are not the best credentials to present yourself to Jesuit Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who is about to publish his encyclical. All brothers in fraternity and planetary solidarity.