Does Pope Leo XIV lose his citizenships?

Question

Does the new Pope lose his citizenships of Peru and the United States respectively on becoming the Pope?

Answer 1

No, I don't think so.

Whether a state allows multiple citizenship is determined by every state by themselves. Many western countries allow their citizens to have another passport in parallel (a notable exception is Austria). The pope becomes a citizen of the Vatican. The Vatican does allow people to have other citizenships as well (e.g members of the Swiss Guard become citizens of the Vatican for the duration of their service, while still keeping their Swiss passport). The USA also allows dual citizenship. So being both a citizen of the USA and the Vatican should not be a problem at all. The same seems to apply for Peru as well, at least in most cases. It's very unlikely that Peru would revoke the citizenship of "their" Pope.

Also note that Leo XIV is the Pope and thus the absolute Monarch of the Vatican state, so he can change the laws of the Vatican as he likes.

Answer 2

USCODE 2011 title8 lists seven potentially expatriating acts which, if performed voluntarily and with the intention of relinquishing U.S. nationality, cause loss of nationality.

Item (1) is

obtaining naturalization in a foreign state.

Item (4)(A) is

accepting, serving in, or performing the duties of any office, post, or employment under the government of a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof .. if he has or acquires the nationality of such foreign state

70 years ago, the voluntary act of becoming Pope and a citizen of the Papel State would have automatically lost the Pope his American citizenship. But now, the important rule is “with the intention of relinquishing U.S. nationality”..

What has changed in the past 70 years is the interpretation of “intention”.. It was understood that becoming Pope indicated an intention to renounce American nationality. That is no longer the case: several court cases have held that the intentionality of the act is not the same as the intentionality to relinquish U.S. nationality, and those court findings have been accepted and embedded in regulation.

^{The code indicates that loss of nationality is automatic, but it appears that in practice the operational arms of the U.S. Government have no court-approved way of determining intention unless the Pope has his intention certified by the documented procedure. This appears to be only procedural: the President, or part of the executive arm of government could make an executive judgement outside the existing process, which could be reviewed by the courts or confirmed by congress.}

Answer 3

United States citizenship is never taken away.

You may have read of cases where a court ruled that someone who has lived in the U.S.A. as a citizen for a long time is not a citizen. But those are cases in which it is held that, although issued a citizenship certificate after a naturalization process, they were never validly citizens in the first place because they committed fraud in their application for citizenship. That has been done with persons accused of being nazi war criminals, who were then deported to Germany where they would be criminally prosecuted.

There is a process for ceasing to be a United States citizen voluntarily. I know no reason why the new pope would want to do that.