You have to admit it, we do live in very interesting times. Last week, there was a major online feud going on between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV. It all started on Palm Sunday when Leo said the following during his homily:
“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’ (Is. 1:15).”
It seemed like a very strange thing to preach on Palm Sunday. Typically, the presider at Mass will talk about Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem or speak of His passion and death. Some of us also recalled Jesus saying these contradictory words from Matthew 10:34, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword.” So understandably, many Catholics were very confused.
Then it was leaked that Leo had a private meeting on April 9th with David Axelrod, a democrat operative and Obama’s chief strategist. Just three days later, three of the worst US cardinals, namely Blasé Cupich (Chicago), Joseph “Nighty Night” Tobin (Newark), and Robert McElroy (Washington D.C.), were all interviewed on 60 Minutes by Norah O’Donnell. Predictably, they were highly critical of Trump and his policies.
This media blitz had the fingerprints of a Democrat inspired coordinated operation to take down Trump in the press and start to transform public opinion regarding the US’s conflict with Iran. Obviously, they were hoping faithful Catholics would begin to think: If our religious leaders believe Trump is a bad man and that the conflict is immoral, maybe we should too!
Then, on April 16th at an ecumenical gathering in Cameroon, Pope Leo doubled down with this criticism, clearly directed at the Trump Administration, “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” and “woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Leo went on to say, “God does not bless any conflict.” This was a very peculiar comment considering the Catholic Church has, for thousands of years, held to a just war theory. Catholic victories like the Battle of Lepanto, which were inspired by prayers to the Blessed Mother to defeat the Ottoman Empire, seem to disprove this statement. Remarkably, during this same time period, Leo was also enthusiastically praising the virtues of Islam.
At this point, Trump had had enough of Leo’s rhetoric. He posted a screed on Truth Social that Leo was weak on crime, was okay with Iran having a nuclear weapon, and should concentrate on being a pope, not a politician. Trump also brought up how the Catholic Church was motivated by fear and closed down churches during COVID-19. Trump also started sharing old social media posts by Robert Prevost that touted left-leaning causes. These had been scrubbed by the Vatican when Leo became pope, but as they say, the internet is forever.
Trump’s words and tactics were harsh, but as the ultimate counter-puncher, he did not hold back, regardless of Pope Leo’s position as a member of the clergy and the leader of the Catholic Church. And Trump’s posts really did hit home because, as Chris Jackson explains,
“Leo has made the papacy serve a familiar post-conciliar project: moral pressure on the right, indulgence toward the left, endless pathos about migration, endless ambiguity toward Democratic Catholic corruption, and a public witness that somehow grows most forceful precisely when American nationalism, border enforcement, criminal punishment, or anti-Iran action are on the table.”
As faithful Catholics, we would have more respect for Pope Leo if he had, in the past, denounced all forms of war, death, and destruction, especially the reports that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had killed 30,000 Iranian protesters in January of this year. Or he had spoken out about the 7,000 Christians killed in Nigeria in 2025 alone. In addition, there was no mention or accolades for Trump as a peacemaker for single-handedly ending seven wars in seven months last year. Pope Leo, as with all left-leaning operatives, seems to have selective outrage mostly aimed at conservative, right-leaning causes.
But something must have happened as Pope Leo has suddenly changed his tune. On a recent plane ride, he held a gaggle with the press and stated that the speeches he was reading from were written at least two weeks before the feud began and were not specifically aimed at Trump. Pope Leo also seems to have changed his position regarding unrestricted migration.
At yet another event in Cameroon, Pope Leo encouraged young people to stay in their country rather than migrate. He encouraged them to bloom where they are planted, fight the corruption, and find ways to make their own country better. Isn’t this what Donald Trump and MAGA have been saying all along?
Perhaps the old Robert Prevost posts have pulled back the curtain on his true motives. Perhaps the photo of him bowing to the Pachamama or attending a Communist March in 1983 is beginning to sully his reputation as an objective observer and Christian moral authority. Perhaps it is the backlash he is getting from American Catholics about wading into America’s foreign policy. This sudden turnabout seems somewhat suspicious, but we will take it.