The Pope’s Diplomats

From sequence to sequence, the documentary unveils the objectives, means, and values driving the Catholic Church’s temporal actions through its current foreign policy within the Vatican City State. It does so by giving voice to Pope Francis’s diplomats, including his Secretary of State, his Foreign Minister, and his Apostolic Nuncios—essentially his ambassadors to states. These shadowy figures were patiently persuaded by the filmmaker, Constance Colonna-Cesari, to reveal themselves before her camera. The documentary thus provides an in-depth look into the backstage of the Church’s diplomacy, immersing us in the corridors of power with its unique global influence.

The Vatican emerges as an intelligence hub comparable to the greatest states, a fact that becomes apparent in the first moments of the film. Indeed, the Americans were not mistaken: this was revealed by the diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, which documented a major surveillance operation by the United States on every move marked “Holy See.”

From seeking a political solution to the Syrian civil war, to Pope Francis’s advocacy for Europe to welcome migrants, to exploring alternative strategies to combat jihadist terrorism, and the tense relationship with Donald Trump’s America, the film unfolds like a thriller. Its final act takes us to Havana, the Cuban capital, where it reveals a pact sealed between Barack Obama and Pope Francis, showing that the architects of this diplomacy can become true secret agents, achieving results sometimes inaccessible to other states.

However, this diplomacy, which spans eternity, is not immune to certain pitfalls. In Rome as well, on some major current issues, the laws of realpolitik occasionally take precedence…