Now More Than Ever. That’s why “The Roman Watch”

When the Twin Towers were attacked in New York on September 11, 2001, a question immediately circulated: would John Paul II go to Canada for World Youth Day, scheduled for 2002? Those were times of great uncertainty, because the attack on the Twin Towers was not only the first attack on the heart of the United States. It was a slap in the face to Western civilization, which had basked in the idea of having won the war against communism, ignoring the fact that that war had been won on the battlefield, but also thanks to the faith of many. While people spoke of the “end of history” (according to Fukuyama’s theory) or the “clash of civilizations” (according to Samuel Huntington), they faced a religious sentiment that was surging for no apparent reason.

Sidelined by the Western world, religions angrily returned from the so-called “Global South,” demanding renewed efforts from everyone to understand the phenomenon. Are religions part of the solution, or are they the problem?

Over the centuries, this problem has arisen whenever the Western world has faced a new world order. Ultimately, religious schisms have been nothing more than moments of political maturation, in which politics, not faith, has been the decisive factor. I acknowledge that this statement is self-evident and requires further argument. But we’ll return to it on these pages.

Today, we are experiencing a further epochal shift. If, previously, the collapse of the international order created new balances, in recent years the rifts have not only been geopolitical but, above all, cultural. If Gutenberg’s movable-type printing had opened Christianity to a multiplicity of narratives, the challenges of artificial intelligence are opening the door to an exasperated individualism. Man is alone. Man will likely turn to faith again.

The Church has always been present in these historical upheavals. It has developed its own diplomacy and its own thought, resulting in what is known as the Social Doctrine of the Church. It has solid themes and, above all, an understanding of humanity that is the natural antidote to overcoming fragmentation. The Catholic Church has always had something to say, and still does.

The Church often goes unheard. Appeals for disarmament fall on deaf ears. Offers of mediation are rejected, despite the Holy See’s long history of diplomatic mediation. Yet the Holy See continues its mission, and Leo XIV, in this “change of era,” preaches an unarmed and disarming peace.

A religious understanding of the Catholic Church’s international activity is also key to understanding the movement of other religions. It also involves looking at the narratives of the global South, shocked in some ways by the godless world order that has been constructed over the years. Between action and reaction, the Holy See prefers understanding, but this also presupposes the ability to see the underlying patterns, paths, and ideas.

The idea for The Roman Watch was born from these considerations. While many authors write about religion and diplomacy, and religion and international relations, there is no think tank that offers a fully Catholic perspective on international relations. This is the goal of the “observatory”: to serve as a forum for dialogue and discussion, where all topics can be addressed and studied.

There is a desire to define a new way of thinking, perhaps even a different way of applying the Social Doctrine of the Church, as Cardinal Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, asked the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy – the Pope’s ambassadors school – at a conference marking the 325th anniversary of its foundation.

There is a desire to create a place for discussion where the issues of religious diplomacy are not absorbed, and where papal diplomacy is analyzed, studied, and understood.

To the doubts that followed September 11th, Joaquín Navarro Valls, longtime director of the Holy See Press Office, simply responded: “Now more than ever.” This is the answer we can give today when asked whether there is a need to talk about religion and international relations, and how they are connected: “Now more than ever.“