How many saints can Pope Leo add to his army?

POPE LEO XIV must have found out about the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites just like the rest of Europe — first thing Sunday morning upon waking. It was the 46th day of his papacy and he did what the Roman pontiff was expected to do. At his weekly noon message to the vast throng gathered in St. Peter’s Square, he condemned war as an instrument of policy and pleaded with world leaders to remember the suffering of the innocent. The

- By Howard Chua-Eoan

crowd applauded on that muggy morning, but those virtues feel a little toothless in the wake of bunker-busters and the potential for anarchy.

A geopolitical lesson of the late 20th century was never to underestimate the power of the papacy. John Paul II played a part in dissolving the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact and ending the Cold War, but that’s increasingly dusty history. The Vatican has spent the last couple of decades cleaning up Saint John Paul’s administrative messes — from priestly abuse to banking fiascos. The late Pope Francis may have come across as avuncular, embracing, and a liberal, but he was also a tough manager and went a long way to putting the Vatican back on a surer financial footing, although more work needs to be done.

Despite its inadequacies, the Roman Catholic Church remains an enormous globalized organization. It’s had a long head start. The department that oversaw the evangelization — that is, the conversion — of the world was established in 1600. Barocco Globale, an intriguing show at the armory of the Quirinale in Rome, shows the breadth of papal geopolitical interests in the 17th century. It opens with the state funeral that Pope Paul V organized for the ambassador of the Congolese king, who died in Rome after a perilous trip to the Holy See. The diplomat’s posthumous bust — modeled on a version of ancient Rome's African nemesis, Hannibal — was displayed in Santa Maria Maggiore, the basilica where Francis is now interred.