Can the pope vote? Pope Leo XIV’s mail ballot, what Church law says, and what the Bible says

What US law says

Being pope does not by itself end American citizenship. NBC Chicago reports that he did not renounce his, and so remains eligible under US law. Soon after his election, ABC News reported that he could still vote in future elections. A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections, speaking of overseas voters generally, said a voter living abroad can keep voting by mail while keeping an Illinois voting address, and that a voter who gives up that address keeps the right to vote for federal offices under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.

Not everyone agrees. At least one blogger argues that a man who now lives permanently in Vatican City is no longer an Illinois resident. That is a question for election officials and, if anyone brought a challenge, for a court. We are reporting the argument, not giving legal advice, and no challenge has appeared in the reports we read.

What Church law says

Canon law limits what clergy do in politics, but the limits are about office and party, not the ballot. Canon 285 §3 says clerics “are forbidden to assume public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power.” Canon 287 §2 says they are “not to have an active part in political parties and in governing labor unions,” unless the competent Church authority judges it necessary to defend the Church’s rights or promote the common good. Neither canon mentions voting, and priests commonly vote as citizens.

The law also says nothing that strips a pope of his earlier citizenship. Prof. Antonio G. Chizzoniti, a canon law scholar at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, said in a March 2026 article carried by EWTN News that canon law neither requires a pope to give it up nor forbids him to keep it, and that the matter sits “at the intersection of distinct legal systems.” He also argues that, as a foreign head of state, a pope may not be bound by civil obligations tied to citizenship, voting among them. That goes to duty, not permission. Canon 331 gives the pope supreme power in the Church, and canon 1404 says “The First See is judged by no one,” so no Church court could order him not to vote.

The tighter limit is teaching rather than law. The Catechism calls it “morally obligatory” for citizens “to exercise the right to vote” (no. 2240), which is why our page on whether Christians should vote lists Catholics among those who say yes. It also says it is “not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life” (no. 2442). We read that to mean: a pastor may vote, but he may not use his office to tell people how.

Does it break Vatican neutrality?

This is the serious objection. The pope is not only a bishop; he is the sovereign of Vatican City, and the Holy See deals with the United States as one government with another. In Article 24 of the 1929 Lateran Treaty, the Holy See declared that it wished to stay out of temporal disputes between states, and Vatican City was declared neutral and inviolable.

That article is about quarrels between nations, so a county ballot in Illinois does not fall under its words. Still, a head of state helping to pick another country’s senators has no precedent we can find. The defence is that a secret ballot is the private act of one citizen, not an act of the Holy See. Whether people will see it that way is a fair question.

What the Bible says

The Bible says nothing about popes voting, or about citizens electing their rulers, since nobody in it chose their rulers at the ballot box. The closest thing it offers is a question about what a servant of God owes the state, and whether earthly citizenship still counts. Paul gives the plainest case. Arrested in Jerusalem and about to be flogged, the apostle used his legal status:

²⁵ But as they stretched him out to strap him down, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman citizen without a trial?” ²⁶ On hearing this, the centurion went and reported it to the commander. “What are you going to do?” he said. “This man is a Roman citizen.” ²⁷ The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he answered. ²⁸ “I paid a high price for my citizenship,” said the commander. “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied. ²⁹ At once those who were about to interrogate Paul stepped back, and the commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put a Roman citizen in chains.

Paul did it again before Festus: “I appeal to Caesar!” (Acts 25:11). The same Paul told the Philippians that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). He held the two together. Heaven came first, and that did not make his Roman rights any less real. Be honest about the limit, though: Paul claimed citizenship to protect himself and carry on his mission. He was not taking part in government, so this passage shows that an apostle kept his citizenship, not that an apostle should vote.

Peter, whom Catholics regard as the first pope, is in a telling story of his own. When collectors asked whether Jesus paid the temple tax, Jesus said the sons are exempt, then paid anyway: “so that we may not offend them” (Matthew 17:24–27). That was a tax for God’s house, not Rome’s, but the instinct carries: being free of an obligation does not always mean you should refuse it. Beyond that stand the texts in our voting guide: “Seek the prosperity of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7), “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21) and “Pay everyone what you owe him” (Romans 13:7).

On the other side is Jesus before Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Some Christians read that as a reason for church leaders to stay away from every earthly contest. It was said about armed force, “My servants would fight,” so it does not settle voting, but it is the right warning for anyone who thinks a ballot can do what only Christ’s kingdom can.

How Christians differ

Catholic. Clergy may vote; they may not hold civil office or take an active part in parties (canons 285 and 287). Bishops teach about the moral issues and leave the choice of candidates to the laity’s consciences. A pope has simply never been tested on this in a US election, which is why the story is news.

Anglican. The Church of England goes further the other way: 26 seats in the House of Lords are reserved for its bishops, who take part in making Britain’s laws.

Evangelical and mainline Protestant. Pastors vote as citizens, and most of these churches encourage their members to do so. Some, such as the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, endorse no party or candidate.

Anabaptist and others. Old Order Amish and other Old Order Anabaptists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, generally stay away from the ballot box for reasons of conscience: the Witnesses cite Jesus’ words that his disciples are “not of the world” (John 17:16), and Old Order groups hold a two-kingdom view that keeps believers out of political contests. On that view a church leader would stay out too, though these groups have not commented on the pope, and Amish practice varies by community. Our voting guide gives the sources for these positions.

These are summaries in general terms, not statements by any church about this news.

Our take

This is our opinion, not a report. He should mail it, and he should never tell a soul what is in it. That is if Illinois law lets him, which we leave to its officials.

A Church that teaches that voting is morally obligatory cannot comfortably excuse the one man whose every word on the subject is quoted. If the duty is real, it binds the man who teaches it, and Paul’s example says the apostolic office does not turn a citizen into a stateless person. Leo was a boy from Chicago before he was anything else. Some would hear a refusal as saying politics is too dirty for a pope to touch, an odd message for the laity who are told to get on with it.

We know the objection. A pope’s vote is not just one vote: it will be read as a signal, and partisans on both sides will claim it. That is why the secrecy is everything. The vote is fine; a hint is not. One wink about a candidate would come close to what canon 287 and the Catechism warn against, and it would do so from the most public pulpit on earth. So he should vote the way millions of ordinary Catholics do, in silence, then go back to preaching the things that bind everyone’s conscience no matter who wins.

A prayer goes with the ballot, too. Whatever he does with the envelope, Christians can do what Jeremiah told the exiles to do for the city they lived in, and pray for the man himself, who had lung-cancer surgery on October 13.

Over to you

If you were Pope Leo, with the ballot on your desk and the whole world watching, would you seal the envelope or leave it unsent? Tell us why below.

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