Porras incident puts Vatican’s balancing act in Venezuela to the test

A few days after Pope Leo XIV warned against potential American military action in Venezuela, the Venezuelan regime barred a local cardinal with a Vatican passport from leaving the country, raising questions about whether the Vatican will respond more forcefully to the Maduro regime.

Cardinal Porras’ detention has exposed a long-running tension in Vatican diplomacy: the attempt to advocate for peace in Venezuela without seeming blind to the human rights’ abuses fueling Venezuela’s crisis. The Holy See has long prioritized protecting clergy and preserving its role as mediator, opting for quiet diplomacy instead of public confrontation.

But that restraint has often made papal calls for dialogue and Leo’s criticism of an American threat seem detached from the humanitarian crisis and human rights abuses on the ground.

The treatment of Porras now raises the question of whether the Holy See must change course and show that it can speak with greater moral clarity while still safeguarding the Church’s presence and keeping open the diplomatic channels vital to any future agreement to end the country’s crisis.

During a Dec. 2 press conference returning from his trip to Turkey and Lebanon, Pope Leo was asked about his opinion on an American military threat on Venezuela. He said in response that “it is better to seek dialogue, maybe pressure, including economic pressure, but looking for another way to bring about change.”

Just eight days later, Cardinal Baltazar Porras, who holds a Vatican passport, was stopped at Simón Bolívar Airport near Caracas as he tried to board a flight. Venezuelan officials informed him he appeared as “deceased” in the passport system, refused to return his documents, and forced him to sign a declaration that he was banned from traveling indefinitely due to “non-compliance with travel regulations.”

Sources close to Porras, the 81-year-old archbishop emeritus of Caracas, told The Pillar that he was detained for more than two hours, threatened with arrest, and subjected to a security check including drug-sniffing dogs. Authorities ultimately annulled his Venezuelan passport, leaving him stranded in the airport’s baggage claim area.

It is effectively unheard of for any country to allow a holder of one of its diplomatic passports to be prevented from leaving a state without issuing at least a formal and public protest. But the Vatican has not yet made a public statement on the incident.

Pope Leo has been notably cautious in his