Vatican spokesman warns against ‘exaggeration’ of Pope’s role as head of state

July 14, 2026

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CWN Editor's Note: Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, warned in an editorial against “any glorification or exaggeration of the Pope’s role as head of state, any emphasis on the importance of this role.”

In “The Pope always speaks as a Shepherd,” Tornielli wrote that “it is true that, to guarantee the absolute freedom of the Vicar of Christ, it was established nearly a century ago that there would be a tiny patch of land where the Bishop of Rome and Shepherd of the Universal Church would also be sovereign—and thus head of state. But this was, and remains, an arrangement designed to recognize precisely this need for independence from any other state, and not an affirmation of a dual mission.”

Tornielli concluded:

When he calls for human life to be respected and protected at every stage of its existence, when he speaks of peace with the good of all peoples in mind and calls for an end to the mad arms race—even going beyond the concept of a “just war”—when he calls for dialogue and negotiation by invoking the Magisterium of Social Doctrine, when he calls for migrants to be regarded as people to be welcomed, without ever forgetting their human dignity; when he reminds us that the poor are at the heart of the Gospel and that we must build more just and equitable societies; when he defends the right to religious freedom; when he emphasizes the importance of caring for Creation so that we may pass it on to our children and grandchildren—the Successor of Peter is not speaking as a head of state. He is simply proclaiming the Gospel.

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