The Vatican will not participate in US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” initiative, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s top diplomatic official, said on Tuesday while adding that efforts to handle crisis situations should be managed by the United Nations.
Pope Leo, the first US pope and a critic of some of Trump’s policies, was invited to join the board in January.
Italy and the European Union have said their representatives plan to attend as observers as they have not joined the board.
The Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States,” Parolin said.
The Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States,” stated Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, on the sidelines of the bilateral meeting in Rome with the Italian Government at…
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) February 17, 2026
“One concern,” he said, “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.”
Many rights experts say that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory’s affairs resembled a colonial structure. The board launched last month has also faced criticism for not including a Palestinian.
The Israeli war on Gaza has killed over 72,000, caused a hunger crisis and internally displaced Gaza’s entire population. Despite a ceasefire which took place last October, Israeli attacks proceed, claiming more live in the besieged enclave.
Multiple rights experts, scholars and a UN inquiry say the Israeli war amounts to genocide.
Leo has repeatedly decried conditions in Gaza. The pope, leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, rarely joins international boards. The Vatican has an extensive diplomatic service and is a permanent observer at the United Nations.
Source: Agencies