It is at once predictable, informative, and in some cases, disappointing to witness the way in which so many Catholics are reacting to the recent war-of-words between Robert Prevost (stage name: Leo) and Doanld J. Trump.
The tension itself, however, is nothing new.
Bergoglio, who died just three months into Trump’s second term, was also highly critical of the Trump Administration.
In 2016, “Francis” took a direct shot at Trump (while barricaded within the Vatican fortress) saying that anyone who builds a border wall is “not a Christian.” In February of 2025, in the early days of Trump’s current term, Bergoglio sent a letter to the U.S. bishops condemning the Administration’s efforts to find and deport criminal illegal aliens.
For his part, Leo, who insists that the heretic who preceded him is in heaven, is simply picking up the leftist agenda where Jorge left off. [This is about the closest thing to “tradition” that one will find in the Occupied Vatican these days.]
In September, for example, Leo the Leftist Lion™ said:
Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion but is in favor of the death penalty,’ is not really pro-life. And someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.’
On several grounds, everyone in their right Catholic mind found Leo’s comments condemnable, and for obvious reasons: not as an expression of allegiance to Donald Trump but rather in defense of authentic doctrine.
The current dust-up is a little bit different insofar as it is mainly focused on the Iran war and the harm that such acts heap upon the innocent, many of whom are women and children.
On Easter Sunday, while Catholics were rejoicing in the resurrection of Our Lord, Trump took time out to post the following (pardon the language) on his social media account (because that’s how true Statesmen conduct sensitive affairs, ya know):
Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.
Once again, persons in their right Catholic mind found this statement condemnable on several grounds.
This time, however, something different happened.
A number of Catholics – including some who enjoy a somewhat “traditional” reputation and had once seemed to be in their right Catholic mind – rushed to Trump’s defense with an array of midwit excuses for his maniacal rant, from claims that “he’s just trolling Iran!” to “he’s a 3D chess master!”
Later that same day, Leo delivered an Easter message wherein he – although not addressing Trump’s profanity laden threats directly – repeatedly called for peace.
Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them! We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow.
Some of the aforementioned Trump defenders-at-all-cost took exception to Leo’s words. Why? Simple, they were offensive to tribal ears, in this case, I refer to the Trump Tribe.
On April 7, Trump once again took to social media as his arbitrary deadline to “Open the F’n Straight” approached, threatening, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Leo once again spoke without naming Trump, although clearly directing his comments toward the Shabbos Goy-in-Chief (more on that momentarily):
Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran. And this is truly unacceptable! There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more, it is a moral question concerning the good of the people as a whole, in its entirety … “Let’s remember, especially, the innocent: children, the elderly, the sick, so many people who have already become, or will become, victims of this continued warfare.
The Trump Tribe once again took up virtual spears to the defend their leader. It’s the art of the deal! That’s just Trump being Trump! Leo rejects just war theory!
Contrast Leo’s comments with those of Pope Pius XII, made during his 1942 Christmas message, spoken in defense of “numberless exiles” effected by “the hurricane of war…”
About these innocent victims of war (in this case WWII), the Holy Father went on to say:
Mankind owes [the solemn vow not to rest until] … the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline. Mankind owes that vow to the many thousands of non-combatants, women, children, sick and aged, from whom aerial war-fare — whose horrors we have from the beginning frequently denounced — has without discrimination or through inadequate precautions, taken life, goods, health, home, charitable refuge, or house of prayer.
Three months earlier, the Vatican had sent to the U.S. President a “Memorandum of His Holiness Pope Pius XII Re: Bombing Civilian Populations,” making many of the same points.
Needless to say, Pope Pius XII was speaking exactly how a true Holy Father, the world’s greatest moral authority, should be expected to speak. No Catholics anywhere insisted that he stay out of politics and focus on doctrine!
If Leo had said these very same words, however, there can be no doubt that the Trump Tribe would have denounced them as the uninformed opinion of a pearl clutching pacifist.
Look, I’m no fan of Robert Prevost, in fact, I don’t even consider him a member of the Catholic Church at all much less the pope. That said, I don’t view the world through an anti-Leo lens any more than I do through a pro-Trump lens.
My views of both Leo and Trump and their various words and deeds are shaped – to the best of my ability at any rate – by the Holy Catholic faith. I suppose you can call me, and those of like mind, Catholic partisans.
By that measure, for reasons well known and far too numerous to elucidate here, Leo is an absolute trainwreck. At the same time, I recognize that his calls for peace in relation to the war in Iran are not.
To be clear, I don’t claim to know all that Leo has said on the subject, and so by no means am I suggesting that his every utterance is correct or even defensible.
What I do know, however, is that the war with Iran is a war-of-choice, one that doesn’t even remotely come close to meeting the standard of a just war.
And let us not forget that our nation is embroiled in this war-of-choice in large measure thanks to Donald Trump’s embrace of the Zionist heresy, whereby he has become a willing (if not indentured) servant of the Synagogue, those whom St. Paul describes as the “adversaries to all men.” (1 Thessalonians 2:14)
Those willing and able to view Donald Trump through a Catholic lens – as opposed to peering out from under a sweaty red MAGA hat – cannot help but to conclude that he has chosen to align himself – and worse, our nation – with the enemies of Our Lord and His Church.
