On the Pope’s plane– There’s a strange feeling of isolation when you’re covered up Pope Leo XIV From inside the Vatican’s traveling press pool: Escorting from one place to another with a police convoy that clears even the most congested traffic jams, it is a membership that carries many privileges.
But during Leo’s epic four country trip to AfricaLiving inside the Vatican “bubble” has been an almost surreal experience an unprecedented back-and-forth Played between US President Donald Trump and the first American Pope in history.
Every morning this week, wake up development in washington Since last evening, questions abound: Will Leo bite? How will he address the latest criticism while focusing on the Africa program he has planned?
That was certainly the case on Wednesday, when Leo, the Vatican delegation and a group of about 70 accredited journalists boarded an ITA Airways charter for the second leg of Leo’s 11-day visit – flying from Algiers, Algeria to Yaoundé, Cameroon.
To the delight of journalists, Leo responded directly to Trump at the start of the trip when he warmly welcomed journalists traveling from Rome to Algiers on April 13. He responded to people who asked him about Trump’s Truth Social post a day earlier, in which the US president accused him of being soft on crime, cozying up to leftists and owing his papacy to Trump.
Trump was responding to Leo’s call for peace in the context of the Iran war, and commented that Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization was “really unacceptable”.
Leo told reporters on the papal plane that when he called for peace and criticized the war, he was only preaching the gospel, and that he was not afraid of the Trump administration.
On Wednesday, Leo did not answer questions from reporters and focused his remarks on his recently concluded visit to Algeria, where he honored the legacy of his spiritual inspiration. St. Augustine of Hippo.
In brief remarks to reporters standing at the front of economy class, Leo did not mention the war or Trump. But he spoke in terms that suggest the latest action taken overnight from Washington certainly did not go unnoticed. Perhaps tellingly, he spoke exclusively in English.
Trump continued to criticize Truth Social, while US Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert, said Leo “should be careful” when speaking about theology.
For starters, Leo noted the gesture of “goodness,” “generosity,” and “respect” that the Algerian government showed when welcoming the Pope on his first visit. He said the Algerian honor included a full military air escort of the papal plane through Algerian airspace.
He also recalled his visit to the Great Mosque in Algiers, which he said was an important way of showing that “although we have different beliefs, our ways of worshiping are different, our ways of living are different, we can live together in peace.”
He said that St. Augustine’s message of seeking God, seeking truth, building bridges, and seeking unity and community is “something that the world needs to hear today and that we can continue to present in our witness together as we continue this apostolic journey.”
Like other heads of state, the Pope travels internationally with the Vatican’s own media team as well as a group of outside news organizations who pay their journalists, sometimes handsomely, to fly on the Pope’s plane and provide exclusive access to cover his events.
Living inside the Vatican bubble has its advantages and disadvantages for journalism. You get the best access and you’re traveling under the Vatican’s security umbrella, meaning little to no hassle from local security organizers. The Vatican facilitates visas and local SIM cards in advance, and arranges hotels and local transportation, allowing journalists to focus on the news rather than logistics.
Journalists in the bubble get access to the Pope’s speeches ahead of time and have access to members of the delegation at the time, as well as other information in real time from a Vatican spokesperson.
But the real reason news organizations spend thousands of dollars per reporter, per trip, is to prepare for the Pope’s news conferences. The Pope only holds such briefings with reporters at an altitude of 35,000 feet (about 10,000 meters).
Who can forget Pope Francis’s famous line on his first visit as Pope to Rio de Janeiro in 2013, when he was asked about an alleged gay priest, when he uttered the line “Who am I to judge?”
The downside of living in a Vatican bubble is obvious for the same reasons it’s helpful: You become removed from local reality, whether in Algeria or Alaska, and you rarely have time to do the kind of on-the-ground reporting that makes a news report balanced.
News organizations that have the resources have teams on the ground producing such material, or journalists within the bubble split off to do their own reporting, so that the end result is a healthy combination of official Vatican information and local input.
But when the real drama involving the Pope is taking place thousands of miles and time zones away, being in the Vatican bubble is a somewhat unsettling experience. The news everyone wants to know is not necessarily what is on the Pope’s agenda.
But on this trip, the first by an American Pope to Africa, being in the Vatican bubble certainly had its advantages.
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