The Vatican Doesn't Really Get the U.S.

On the stage of world affairs, National Catholic Reporter correspondent John Allen writes in his new book All the Pope’s Men that the Vatican just doesn't think the U.S. has what it takes to run the world. George Weigel, citing Allen's book, thinks that's probably an accurate assessment of the Vatican, but also adds that many Vatican officials are unaware of the fact that most Americans think the same thing.

But Americans have come to understand, however reluctantly, that power, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Perhaps no one can, or should, “run the world.” But someone will take the lead in shaping world politics. That someone can’t be the United Nations as presently configured. And it can’t be those western European countries who are reviving the failed appeasement strategies of the 1930s. Absent American leadership, the world will not be calm and orderly; the world will be chaotic — lethally chaotic.

So does the Vatican understand or see this? Doesn't really seem like it.