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President Donald Trump\u2019s war of words with Pope Leo XIV has earned a strong rebuke from leading Catholic Church figures at home, and has threatened to splinter a voting bloc he dominated in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Catholic bishops and leaders from across the country have spent the week reacting to Trump\u2019s repeated attacks directed at the pope, who last week criticized the president\u2019s plans to target Iranian civil infrastructure as \u201ctruly unacceptable.\u201d Earlier in April, during Easter Mass, Pope Leo had made an explicit call for \u201cthose who have weapons\u201d to cease hostilities and seek peace.<\/p>\n
Trump did not take kindly to the pontiff\u2019s criticisms. In a social media post Sunday, the president called Pope Leo \u201cweak on crime\u201d and framed his views as liberal. Trump also claimed the first American pope elected to the position should be thankful to him, stating: \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t in the White House, Leo wouldn\u2019t be in the Vatican.\u201d<\/p>\n
Past conflicts between the president and the pope<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t the first time a U.S. president has verbally sparred with a sitting pope. During his first term, Trump verbally sparred with Pope Francis, Leo\u2019s predecessor, over his border wall plans. In the 1990s and 2000s, Pope John Paul II debated presidents on the moral merits of sensitive topics including abortion and stem cell research.<\/p>\n
But the spat between Trump and Pope Leo has drawn routine condemnation from many influential religious voices in the U.S., a concerning sign for Republicans ahead of the November midterms, as the party\u2019s base grows increasingly fractured over the war\u2019s fallout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father. Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician,\u201d Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Catholic bishops\u2019 conference, wrote in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Many prominent Church voices sided with Pope Leo\u2019s call for peace. Archbishop Gregory Hartmayer of Atlanta this week reaffirmed the pope\u2019s call to \u201clay down weapons, choose dialogue, protect innocent life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even proclaimed Trump allies have criticized the president\u2019s choice of words, such as Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, who this week called Trump\u2019s comments \u201centirely inappropriate and disrespectful,\u201d adding \u201cthe President owes the Pope an apology.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the week progressed and Trump escalated his rhetoric toward Pope Leo, more\u00a0recriminations came in. Many criticized an AI-generated image, shared by Trump, depicting the president as a healing figure resembling Jesus Christ. Trump later attempted to play down the comparison while refusing to apologize to the pope, but Catholic leaders nonetheless protested loudly against the post, which was later removed.<\/p>\n
The Ancient Order of Hibernians, the country\u2019s largest organization of Irish Catholics, released a statement Tuesday saying the image had \u201camplified the offense\u201d of Trump\u2019s original remarks, calling the act \u201csacrilege and a defamation of the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a president mocks the Vicar of Christ and then cloaks himself in Christ\u2019s image, he has left the realm of politics entirely,\u201d the statement read. \u201cHe has committed an act of desecration against a faith held sacred by over a billion souls.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is a just war?<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s clash with the pope has reignited debates in certain factions of the president\u2019s party over what constitutes a religiously justified war. Administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have used the language of a just war to promote the campaign in the Middle East, which is currently on pause as part of a negotiated ceasefire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But spiritual voices in the country are less convinced. Bishop James Massa, chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops conference, wrote on Wednesday a nation can only be said to be waging a just war, as defined by the Catholic Church, when it acts \u201cin self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war,\u201d Massa wrote.<\/p>\n
The fissure between the administration and religious authorities risks driving a wedge between Trump\u2019s party and a potentially crucial voting bloc ahead of next fall\u2019s midterms. Catholic voters went for Trump in 2024, when he took 55% of that demographic\u2019s vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 43%. Catholics have proven to be a formidable swing group in elections, and according to exit polls, comprise around one in five voters. In 2020, former President Joe Biden won with 50% of Catholics to Trump\u2019s 49%.<\/p>\n
For his part, Pope Leo affirmed this week he had \u201cno fear\u201d of the Trump administration and he would continue to speak out against the war. With a growing cohort of prominent Catholic voices joining him, what started as a verbal spat has escalated into a theological debate involving large swathes of the American electorate, at one of the worst possible times for the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
#Trumps #feud #Pope #Leo #risks #fracturing #Catholic #voting #bloc #won<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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