Following the Trump administration’s spat with Pope Leo XIV over its misbegotten war with Iran, one is reminded of previous historical episodes when the Vatican offered moral clarity for a world that had been corrupted by cynicism and aggressive authoritarianism. Americans, above all, should heed the message.
PRINCETON—An apocryphal anecdote from the 1945 Potsdam Conference has it that Josef Stalin asked Winston Churchill, “How many divisions has the pope?” Pope Pius XII supposedly retorted: “My son Joseph will find out when he tries to go to heaven.”