The election of Pope Leo XIV, as the first leader of the Catholic Church in the United States, moved him to a very rare and legally tricky situation, being an American citizen who is now also the head of a foreign state.
Born in Chicago as 1955 Robert Prevost, the new Pope organized dual citizenship in the US and Peru, where he spent time as a missionary and bishop.
As a Pope, Leo is the leader of the Holy See, the Catholic Church governing organizations, the city of the Vatican, the independent state.
Can the Pope remain a US citizen under the head of a foreign government? Here’s what you need to know about Lion’s citizenship.
Is the Vatican considered a sovereign nation?
The lion is not only a spiritual leader of what the Church says is about 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, as well as the world’s smallest leader.
The Vatican city occupies only 0.17 square miles (0.44 square kilometers) and has several hundred people. 1929 It became an independent state under the Italian and Holy See Treaty.
Can a lion be deprived of your US citizenship?
Americans working in foreign governments are automatically at risk of confiscation of their US citizenship.
However, the US State Department says on its website that it can “actively view” the status of citizenship of Americans who “serve as a foreign head, foreign government or foreign minister.”
“Such cases raise complex issues of international law, including issues related to the level of immunity from the US jurisdiction that they may be given to the person that serves,” the politics states.
The State Department refused to comment on the status of the Pope. The spokesman said the department did not discuss citizenship of persons.
The main problem is whether foreign leaders should have American citizenship when they also like extensive immunity from US law, said Peter Spiro, Professor of Law Law and Citizenship at Temple University. Such immunity faces the constitutional principle that no US citizen should be taller than the law.
However, in 1980 After the decision was made in 1980 The Supreme Court ruled that Americans could not be deprived of their citizenship unless they intentionally refuse it.
“The State Department never thinks you are going to lose your citizenship unless you specifically say during the refusal process,” said the Spiro.
He said it would be difficult to say that Leo, becoming a Pope, showed his intention to refuse to be a US citizen.
“I think it is very unlikely that the US is moving to stop the pope’s citizenship,” said Spiro.
Can the Pope stay in Peruvian citizen?
Peruvian law has no conflict about Pope Leo’s citizen, said Jorge Puch, Deputy Director of Archives of the Register of National Identification and Civil Status of Peru.
The Lion was granted citizenship of Peru in 2015. In August, the month before the Pope Francis appointed him the Bishop of Chiclayo in the northern region of the South American country. To get qualifications, he had to live in Peru for at least two years and pass the Civics test.
“This is the most commendable thing that our beloved Supreme Pontiff could have done: the desire to have a nationality of Peru without being in Peru to birth,” said Puch.
All adult inhabitants of Peru, including naturalized citizens, must vote in elections under the age of 69. Vote in Peru’s presidential election next April. The lion will not be mandatory. He is 70 years old in September.
Was previous Popians retained citizenship in their native countries?
It is unclear what happened to Leo’s predecessor’s citizenship status when they became a pope. This is not information that the Vatican reveals.
Pope Francis updated his passport in his native country in Argentina in 2014, a year after he became Pope. Born in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, born in Poland, never publicly abandoned citizenship in his native country.
John Paul was the first non -pope in 455 years.
Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor of history and American Catholicism at the University of Syracuse, said she doubted Leo that she was giving up US citizenship. But she believes the new Pope sent a message when he said his first language in Italian and Spanish without using English.
“I think he wants to emphasize that he is the Pope of the Universal Catholic Church,” Thompson said, “not an American who is going.”
Did other US citizens serve as leaders of foreign government?
Yes. Here are some noticeable examples.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was born in New York in 1964. For British parents. He left the US as a young boy and 2016. Refused his American citizenship in the UK Foreign Secretary. Three years later, Johnson became a prime minister.
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed was an American citizen when 2017 Was elected president of Somalia. Born in Somalia, 1985. Moved to the United States and 1990. Became a citizen. Mohamed gave up his US citizenship for two years.
Valdas Adamkus became a US citizen after his family escaped from Lithuania to avoid the Soviet occupation. He returned to win the Lithuanian Presidency in 1998, a few years after the Soviet Union collapsed. After his election, he abandoned his American citizenship.
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AP reporter Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico contributed to this story. Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
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