On Trump’s pick for Vatican envoy, can a firebrand become a firebreak?

ROME – Famously, von Clausewitz defined war as “the continuation of politics by other means.” To hear some people tell it, President-elect Donald Trump has an analogous, if inverted, understanding of diplomacy as the continuation of war by other means, as exemplified by his Dec. 20 pick for U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.

Brian Burch, president of the right-wing advocacy group CatholicVote and Trump’s choice for the job, has a reputation as a “pope critic,” leading skeptics of the nomination to suggest he may be better suited to attacking the pontiff than engaging him.

Certainly there’s no shortage of instances in which Burch has expressed reservations about this papacy.

Politico, in its article on the Burch nomination, pointed to a post on X last November in which Burch asserted that Pope Francis’s treatment of his critics, along with “progressive Catholic cheerleading,” has vindicated those who dismiss the pope’s rhetoric on synodality as “merely a ruse.”

Burch made a similar point the same month in an interview with the New York Times.

“The pattern of vindictiveness and punishment seems to fly in the face of what [Pope Francis] says about being an instrument of mercy and accompaniment,” he said. He also said Francis’s 2015 comment that Catholics need not “breed like rabbits” had offended tradition-minded believers.

In another post on X a month later, Burch mocked the Vatican’s green light for “gay blessings” versus restrictions placed on the traditional Latin Mass.

My old paper, the National Catholic Reporter, pointed to an interview Burch gave to Newsmax a year ago in which he asserted that Fiducia Supplicans, a Vatican document approved by Francis authorizing priests to bless people involved in same-sex unions, had created “massive confusion” about Catholic teaching on marriage and sexuality.

Burch further suggested Francis won’t be pope much longer, and the next pope will have to dispel the disillusionment he’s created and return the church to its traditional role as a “voice of moral clarity.”

One might also note that in 2020, Burch came to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s defense when critics were skewering the former nuncio and inveterate critic of Francis for suggesting in a letter to Trump that the coronavirus scare and the George Floyd protests – both causes, by the way, which Pope Francis endorsed – were part of an apocalyptic showdown between the deep state and the forces of good.

“Vigano may not have everything right,” Burch wrote then. “But there is one thing of which I am certain; Satan is real, and he’s on the prowl.”

One could go on, but the point is clear: In many respects, Burch isn’t exactly a Pope Francis fan. To designate him as ambassador to the Vatican, therefore, could imply that Trump anticipates a contentious relationship in his second go-around with this pope, and he wants somebody to represent him who’ll give as good as he gets.

What are we to make of all this?

First, let’s concede that what one might say on social media, or cable TV news, isn’t necessarily the tone the same person might strike in a more formal and thoughtful context. Burch almost certainly will be more measured in his comments on Francis as ambassador. Moreover, there’s no doubt he has a deep respect for the office of the papacy, whatever he may make of individual popes.

Second, there’s probably an argument to be made for truth in advertising.

At least Trump isn’t trying to project a false bonhomie, pretending that everything is sweetness and light. His nomination of Burch amounts to an honest admission that there are real differences between him and Francis, and it doesn’t do anyone any good to pretend that’s not so. (If Trump really does start cranking up mass deportations of immigrants, for example, the gloves likely will come off pretty quickly.)

Third, one could make an argument that Trump actually is paying Pope Francis a compliment by taking him seriously.

In the past, presidents and other world leaders, even those who objected to one or another position a given pope might hold, didn’t send envoys inclined to address those differences – in part, frankly, because they just didn’t regard the Vatican or the Catholic Church as important enough to bother.

Trump, however, understands that he’s returning to the White House in part on the back of Catholic votes, and that many of the American Catholic voters who backed him have the same reservations about Francis as Burch. In other words, Trump thinks he can consolidate his support among a core constituency by being seen as not kowtowing to the Vatican, which is a backhanded way of saying that, for good or ill, the Vatican matters.

All that stipulated, there are still two core question marks about the Burch nomination, and only time will tell how serious they turn out to be.

To begin, it’s fair to wonder how effective someone can be as a bridge-builder, which is the basic job description of a diplomat, when he brings such a clear track record as a critic of the figure to whom he’ll be accredited. To put the point differently, Burch could succeed at using the ambassador’s role as a bully pulpit, but simultaneously fail at advancing the partnerships and behind-the-scenes exchanges of favors which are the life’s blood of professional diplomacy.

In addition, under the heading of unintended consequences, Trump’s decision not to muzzle his disagreements with this papacy may prompt an equal-and-opposite lack of restraint on the other side.

The Vatican generally exercises caution in expressing disagreements with foreign governments, couching their dissent in sufficiently broad terms of universal principle that it’s usually possible for any given leader to deny that were actually talking about him or her. Now, however, Vatican officials may decide that if Trump and his team feel no need to be discrete, why should they? The result might be more direct and forceful Vatican critiques of American policy, putting Trump on the defensive vis-à-vis the world’s most important “soft power.”

That may not be an outcome Trump necessarily fears, but it could also prove a distraction he doesn’t need, depending on how things play out over the next four years. If so, and he wants somebody to calm the troubled waters, then it will be interesting to see if an envoy chosen mostly as a firebrand can also become an effective firebreak.