Pope Leo Snubs Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’: Vatican Has ‘Insisted’ the UN Manage ‘Crisis Situations’

(Photo by Eric Vandeville/Abaca/Sipa USA) (Sipa via AP Images)

The Vatican rebuffed President Donald Trump’s invitation to join his newly formed “Board of Peace” and voiced “concern” that it should be the United Nations which “manages these international crises.”

The board, first proposed under Trump’s Gaza plan that helped broker a fragile ceasefire in October, is due to meet in Washington on Thursday to discuss reconstruction of the territory. Trump has said the body, which he will chair, could later expand its remit to address global conflicts.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s top diplomat, said in a statement Wednesday the Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States.”

He continued: “One concern is that at the international level it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted.”

Pope Leo, the first US-born pontiff, was invited to join in January. The Vatican rarely takes seats on international political bodies, though it maintains a vast diplomatic network and holds permanent observer status at the United Nations.

Trump told representatives at the World Economic Forum at Davos in January that he had invited 60 countries to join the board. More than 20 have so far signed on, including Israel, Argentina, Russia, Hungary and Saudi Arabia.

Several major Western allies, however, have declined to participate including France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. The president withdrew Canada’s invitation amid a tariffs dispute with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

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