Below is the first editorial in The Irish Times yesterday. It makes for interesting reading. While the editorial notes how Pope Leo has been supported by there US cardinals, what about the Maga bishops, and what about Bishop Robert Barron?
It was surely inevitable that Donald Trump would fall out with Pope Leo XIV. But when the US president launched a fusillade of abuse at the first American-born pontiff, he lifted the lid on a conflict that has been simmering almost since the day Robert Prevost appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.
The immediate trigger was the Iran war. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth framed the American assault in explicitly Christian terms, invoking divine providence to justify the bombing. Leo pushed back, saying God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war but rejects them”. He was supported by three American cardinals.
It appears that tensions had been accumulating for some time behind the scenes. When vice-president JD Vance extended an invitation for Leo to visit the country of his birth during its 250th anniversary celebrations this summer, the Vatican declined, reluctant to become a prop in the 2026 midterm campaign. At an antagonistic meeting in January at the Pentagon, the Vatican’s ambassador to Washington was told the US had the power to do whatever it wanted and that the church “had better fall in line”. One official reportedly invoked the example of the forcible removal of the papacy from Rome to Avignon in the 14th century as a warning of what could lie ahead.
Religion plays a more prominent role in the second Trump administration than it did in the first. Hegseth represents an aggressive Christian nationalism, speaking of the armed forces as warriors for the faith. Vance is a Catholic convert, heavily influenced by postliberal thinkers who were intensely hostile to Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, and who view the papacy with deep suspicion when it fails to align with their beliefs.
Leo is a more measured figure than Francis, cautious in style and centrist in his overall positioning. But his continuity with Francis on issues such as immigration, climate and economic inequality means he will never satisfy the American right.
Trump’s decision to post an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like healer, subsequently deleted and implausibly explained away, was received with horror by many conservative Christians and creates difficulties for Vance and his fellow Catholic and rival for the succession, Marco Rubio. Polling shows Leo with a net favourability of plus 34 among registered voters against Trump’s net negative of 12, while the president is underwater with Catholics, a crucial voting bloc in both his election victories.
Yesterday Leo concluded his tour of four African countries, a signal of where he believes the future of Catholicism lies. He is 70 years old, a decade younger than the president. With Trump drifting towards lame duck status, the pope may have reason to believe that time as well as theology are on his side.
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