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Pope Leo will vote from the Vatican, by mail, in Illinois' midterm election
(chicago.suntimes.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2026
179 points (99.4% liked)
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I wonder if he is the first Head of State of a foreign country who is also a US Citizen and actively participates in voting here.
(I know there have been other foreign politicians, like Boris Johnson, who technically had US citizenship due to being born here, but they never exercised it and had to formally renounce it before entering leadership, but this is different).
It's even weirder since there was a lot of angst when Kennedy was running for office, as a Catholic, that he would be forced to take orders from the Vatican. Now, the Pope has a Member of Congress representing him. It would be ironic if that person is an athiest....
Btw BoJo wasn't head of state, that's the monarch.
I feel like the powerful eventually found it less bothersome and safer to rule by proxy through prime ministers and the like
Oh, definitely. The throne of the English crown in Australia and Canada is said to be a relic and not active. They just collect taxes, lead sequestered lives letting democracy govern the land. Basically, they’re the best paid “jobless” that I’ve ever seen.
Wait, Boris Johnson was born in the US?
Yup
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/08/boris-johnson-renounces-us-citizenship-record-2016-uk-foreign-secretary
Huh. TIL.
Slightly related note: Benjamin Netanyahu went to high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
West Philadelphia born and raised?
WHAT. Thanks, I hate it
A recent The Bitchuation Room/Bad Hasbara live podcast in Philly gave them so much shit for that, calling him "your boy" to a staunchly anti-zionist crowd 😄
Does Putin count?
No, he doesn't get a formal vote, he just gets permanent veto power from whatever kompromat he has on Trump
He's not a US citizen. Never has been
He does actively participate in the elections.
That's debatable. You could say he indirectly participates.
Does that count as active? I don't know
maybe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89amon_de_Valera though I don't know whether he voted in the US when he was already president of Ireland
Not sure the last part is that ironic, since he most likely believes in the separation of church and state.
He's literally the head of state because he's head of the church. He's the personified antithesis of the separation you're claiming he's in favor of 😄
Touche. Maybe more of a hypocrite then.
The Catholic church has a lot of very real very destructive problems happening, especially its entire pedophile cover ups problem. Be angry at the legitimately harmful stuff, not this "he's a 100% irredeemable evil hypocrite because he's a religious figure and head of state is possibly suggesting other nation not follow their example" nonsense.
Be angry at the pedo shit, not this pure ideology testing nonsense. I dont particularly give a shit if he's the head of state and head of the religion of a state that is over a milennium of treaties and compromises of European monarchs to create a sense of political-religious neutrality between their nations that doesn't particularly matter all that much in 2026. He seems to broadly support the extremely recent (in comparison to the Catholic Church) understanding of the separation of church and state.
I am.
Way to put words and sentiments in my mouth lol.
While I'm not a fan of theocracies under any circumstances, I'm never going to BEGIN to suggest that being a theocracy is one of the 50 worst thing about the reverse Robin Hood atrocity factory that is the Catholic Church.
I mean, it's not like I APPROVE the least bit but yeah, I totally agree that it's very small potatoes compared to all the radioactive horse apples..
Does he, though? I mean, if he does, he's the epitome of hypocrisy.
Might as well tell me that Miss Rachel is a zionist who can't stand kids or Bill Maher is a devout Muslim who hates attention 😄