It’s just a quick jump across the Atlantic, a two-day turnaround. But Bernie Sanders' decision to leave the campaign trail late Thursday and head to a Vatican City conference later this week still has some allies scratching their heads and wondering whether it’s the best use of the underdog’s limited time.

The problem isn’t the optics of appearing at an academic-feeling event with two leftist South American presidents who’ve clashed with the United States. It’s not the potential appearance of politicizing the Vatican — an accusation he faced as soon as the trip was announced last week.


Instead, it’s the Vermont senator’s departure from New York in the final days before an election that’s pivotal to his bid for the Democratic nomination. Sanders is trailing Hillary Clinton by double digits in the polls and in need of a competitive performance in the delegate-packed state, and his decision to jet to Rome has heightened the anxiety level of supporters who don’t think he has the luxury of stepping out of the primary crucible.

“When he becomes president, he can meet with the pope constantly. But I’d rather him become president [first] so he can have more than a theoretical conversation," said New York state Sen. James Sanders Jr. (no relation) of Queens, a Bernie Sanders backer who said the candidate stands to make serious headway among African-American voters — a key part of Clinton’s New York base — if he can spend time with them, telling his story, in the closing days of the race. “I wish that the trip to the Vatican were at a different time. [But] when the pope calls, what are you gonna do? This is one of the most progressive popes ever.”

Such thoughts are common among Sanders’ allies, who for weeks have played up the importance of his performance in New York — his birth state, and Clinton’s home state — as he claims momentum coming off wins in eight of the past nine contests. Any opportunity to significantly break into Clinton’s lead in New York could change the public narrative of the race, they think, even if such a result wouldn’t dramatically change Sanders’ position in the pledged delegate contest. Sanders campaign aides have always said he performs best in states when he’s able to spend serious time and money, holding rallies and advertising heavily, pointing to his significant victories in New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin as evidence.

Sanders’ Vatican visit is an unusual one for a candidate, even within the context of international trips taken by presidential hopefuls.

While most international trips during campaign season come after the conventions — such as open meetings and addresses in the United Kingdom or Israel, or in Barack Obama’s case, Germany in 2008 — the senator is only scheduled to deliver one brief speech and he is not slated to publicly meet with any foreign leaders, let alone the pope.

The conference — celebrating the 25th anniversary of an encyclical that came at the end of the Cold War — will also be attended by Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, but the majority of featured participants are academics like Columbia University's Jeffrey Sachs, a Sanders adviser.

Few Sanders allies are willing to criticize the senator for the trip, even privately. To them, the decision makes perfect sense: If any politician is going to visit the Vatican now, of course it would be Sanders, a candidate who regularly invokes Pope Francis in his stump speeches and who is widely thought to relish the chance to air his message of combating inequality from a global platform.

The thinking, in Sanders’ circles, is that a swift return to New York on Saturday is quick enough to keep his supporters engaged ahead of Tuesday’s vote — and to keep his international sojourn from becoming a significant distraction.

But the trip came under scrutiny almost as soon as it was announced, with confusion reigning surrounding how, exactly, the invitation landed in Sanders' hands.

And there were the questions: Why leave the state in crunch time, if he’s looking to replicate his surprise wins, or even his close call in Missouri — especially when he’s criticized Clinton for leaving states in the final days before they vote over recent months? Is it a political bank shot he’s attempting, aiming to get a bounce out of a foreign trip to the spiritual home of a key constituency?

While three out of the five most Catholic states in the nation will be voting in the next two weeks — New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut — Sanders’ team insists there is no political calculus behind his choice to leave New York for Rome after Thursday night’s debate. They contend that any attempt to read the tea leaves and suggest that he is making a play for the large Latino Catholic vote in New York, or in the upcoming states that have an even bigger percentage of Catholics, is misguided.

“Some things are just not about politics,” said Sanders communications director Michael Briggs, a sentiment echoed by multiple people close to the campaign who insisted Sanders’ trip is simply a rare opportunity of which the senator himself was eager to take advantage.

His campaign expects Thursday night’s debate to dominate news coverage on Friday, affording him the chance to get away while the attention is on his latest tangle with Clinton — the story line of a week in which tensions between the two have been rising by the day in a primary that Clinton is expected to win.

“I have not heard anybody [complaining about the schedule],” said Briggs. “He will be gone for a very short period, for a very important meeting at the Vatican. He will probably spend less time away from New York this week than Hillary Clinton spends going to fundraisers in Florida, Virginia and California. He’s taking New York very seriously."

Briggs noted that when Sanders is in Italy, Clinton is also set to be out of the state — in California for a campaign cash swing that includes a big-money event for other Democrats hosted by George and Amal Clooney, an event that has come under much fire from Sanders and his allies who rail against Clinton’s high-dollar fundraising.

Campaigning as the former senator from New York, Clinton has appeared all over the state, but so has Sanders, who has held a series of packed and occasionally star-studded rallies. The hope now, said a handful of the senator’s New York backers, is that the energy sparked by his recent appearances — including a massive rally scheduled for Wednesday evening in New York City — sustains the door-knocking and phone-banking done by his volunteers and campaign workers in the closing hours.

“By the time we get through the debate Thursday night, people will be pretty well-informed about the candidate,” said Karen Scharff, the executive director of Citizens Action of New York and a co-chair of the Working Families Party, both of which support Sanders. She added that Sanders appeared to be scheduling multiple events per day before departing in order to get himself in front of as many voters as possible — and that his armies of volunteers are preparing to pick up the pace.

But that hasn't stopped the eyebrow-raising.

“I have heard that,” acknowledged Scharff. “It’s tight. I always wish that we had more time."

