Trump invites pope to Board of Peace, uninvites Canada

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, confirmed on January 21 that President Donald Trump has invited Pope Leo xiv to join his Board of Peace and that the pope is considering the offer. Parolin said the Vatican will not “participate financially” in the Board of Peace because “we are not in a position to do so” and explained that the Vatican “finds itself in a different situation than other countries, so there will be a different consideration.” Meanwhile, President Trump withdrew his invitation to Canada to join after Prime Minister Mark Carney told world leaders at the World Economic Forum on January 20 that the world’s “middle powers” must band together to resist economic coercion from the world’s largest powers. Thus, the one-day-old Board of Peace is already engendering strife.