Conciliatory tones are not Donald Trump’s forte, and we know it. This time, however, the American president has launched an unprecedented attack against the Catholic church by firing on Pope Leo, the first American pontiff in history. In a long and very harsh post on Truth, while he was still on Air Force One returning from Florida, the American president defined Leone as “weak on the crime front and terrible at foreign policy”.
So much anger arises as a reaction to the gestures of Pope Leo, who decided not only to make appeals and convene a prayer vigil but who said bluntly that certain threats, such as Trump’s to Iran, “are not acceptable”. The Pope invited ordinary people to mobilize to make themselves heard by politics (“the congressmen”, to use his words).
Trump vs Pope Leo
“He talks about the fear of the Trump administration, but he doesn’t mention the fear that the Catholic church, and all other Christian organizations, felt during Covid, when priests, ministers and anyone else were arrested for holding religious services,” writes the tycoon.
The reference is to the recent statements of the pontiff who condemned the war during a special prayer vigil in the Vatican basilica of St. Peter in the same hours in which the United States and Iran were holding peace talks, which later failed, in Pakistan.
“I much prefer his brother Louis because he is totally Wizard. He has it all figured out,” Trump insists, accusing Pope Leo of “thinking it acceptable for Iran to possess nuclear weapons.” “I don’t want a Pope who finds it terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a country that was sending enormous quantities of drugs to the United States and which, even worse, was emptying its prisons, pouring murderers, drug dealers and violent criminals into our country”, attacks the tycoon again. “And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the American president because I’m doing exactly what I was elected to do, with a landslide victory, which is to bring crime to historic lows and create the largest stock market in history.”
The American president also claims the election of Louis Prevost as pontiff: “Leone should be grateful to me because, as everyone knows, his appointment was a disconcerting surprise. He was not included in any list of eligible candidates and was chosen by the Church exclusively because he was American; in fact, it was believed that this was the best way to manage the relationship with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leone wouldn’t be in the Vatican. Unfortunately.”
And again, Trump criticizes “Leone’s attitude, which is too weak on the crime and nuclear weapons fronts, I don’t like it at all. Nor do I like the fact that he meets Obama sympathizers like David Axelrod, a failure of the left, one of those who would have liked to see believers and members of the clergy arrested. Leone should get his act together in his role as Pope, use common sense, stop pandering to the radical left and concentrate on being a Great Pope, rather than a politician. This behavior suits him causing very serious damage and, more importantly, it is damaging the Catholic church!”.
Sergio Mattarella’s speech
And the words that the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, sent to Pope Leo for his apostolic trip to Africa take on a different weight. “The strong call to peace, so urgent in such troubled times, like the invitation
to unity and brotherhood, will contribute to fueling awareness of the indispensable contribution that every individual and every community is called to make
provide to overcome divisions and safeguard human dignity. I’m sure that
no one will be able to remain indifferent to these solemn appeals”, we read in a passage in the note released by the Quirinale.
Not just Pope Leo
In reality, in the last few hours there has also been a strong stance taken by the American Church against the war-mongering policies of the Trump administration.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Washington condemned the American offensive in Iran with unequivocal words from St. Matthew’s Cathedral, which is just a few miles from the White House and the Pentagon. “We find ourselves in the middle of an immoral war”, denounced the influential Robert Mc Elroy, also holding a prayer vigil for Peace as done by Pope Leo in St. Peter’s and in thousands of churches around the world that responded to the Pontiff’s appeal.
“We entered into this conflict – he said with extreme frankness – not out of necessity, but by choice. We did not pursue the path of negotiation with sufficient commitment to the end before resorting to arms”. Mc Elroy even spoke of the lack of clear objectives, reporting the transition “from the idea of unconditional surrender to regime change, to the degradation of conventional armaments up to the removal of nuclear materials”. Here are the disastrous consequences: “The expansion of the conflict far beyond Iran, the destabilization of the world economy and the loss of human lives.” “Each of these political failures,” added the Archbishop of Washington, “is also a moral failure that, according to Catholic just war principles, makes both the beginning of this conflict and any continuation morally illegitimate.”
And after Trump’s attack on Leone, i US bishops reacted by using “disparaging” words. “I am deeply saddened that the president chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in a statement. And again: “Pope Leo is not his rival and is not a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls”.