There is an odd sense of isolation when you are covering Pope Leo XIV from inside the Vatican’s travelling press pool: Escorted from venue to venue with police motorcades that clear even the most congested of traffic jams, it’s a membership that has many privileges.
But during Leo’s epic four-nation trip to Africa, being inside the Vatican “bubble” has been an almost surreal experience, as an unprecedented back-and-forth plays out between U.S. President Donald Trump and history’s first American pope.
