Papal–Presidential Quarrel a Missed Opportunity for America and the Catholic Church

President Trump and Pope Leo XIV are in a war of words right now — when they should be allies, not enemies.Both want peace, but the president intends to get it by winning a war against Iran, while the pope thinks the war isn’t worth fighting.“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Mr. Trump said Sunday on his Truth social-media network, in a post blasting the pontiff as “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.”With midterm elections just seven months away, Catholic voters suddenly find themselves in the crossfire between the Vatican and the White House.Mr. Trump proved to be a magnet for Catholics two years ago: They accounted for more than 1 in 5 of his 2024 voters, and Mr. Trump bested Vice President Harris among Catholics by a commanding 12 points.Even in 2020, Catholics split almost evenly between Mr. Trump and a member of their own church:Nobody would have guessed President Biden was Catholic to judge from his enthusiastic support for abortion rights, yet he attends Mass faithfully, and he did win the Catholic vote in 2020 — but only barely, 50 percent to Mr. Trump’s 49 percent.The days when descendants of Irish and Italian Catholic immigrants cast their ballots for Democrats without a second thought are long gone, and thanks to Mr. Trump, Catholics have been realigning to the GOP.Yet the current spat with the pope could change that.White Catholics have been in the forefront of the Republican realignment, but Mr. Trump made inroads with Hispanics and others, too.And growing numbers of conservative Catholic converts have not only been a keystone in Mr. Trump’s electoral coalition; they’re essential to his administration as well — one even serves as his vice president.J.D. Vance has just had a bruising experience leading negotiations with Iran; the next test of his diplomatic abilities may be trying to reconcile Mr. Trump with Pope Leo.The vice president has a book on the way in June, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” explaining his journey to the Catholic Church.Yet this background makes Mr. Vance all the more aware of what the pope and the president are probably never going to agree on, and war is at the top of that list.“We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it,” the pope said Monday, “but I do believe in the message of the gospel, as a peacemaker.”Leo’s not unusual among modern popes in decrying war in almost any circumstance.John Paul II was “no fan,” as Mr. Trump might put it, of President George W. Bush’s war with Iraq.Pope Leo leaves no doubt at all about where he stands on the war Mr. Trump has been waging:“God does not bless any conflict,” he tweeted last week. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”Plenty of Catholics, as well as Protestants, wondered if the pope could really mean what he was saying — isn’t the Bible full of stories of warriors God blesses?For that matter, popes declared a crusade or two — or nine — in the Holy Land themselves back in the day.Yet Pope Leo isn’t unusual among recent popes in taking a hard line against war, and the Church’s teachings on “Just War” are very strict.He’s not in favor of nuclear proliferation, either — though he’s opposed to what Mr. Trump deems necessary to stop the terror-sponsoring state of Iran from obtaining the ultimate weapon.There’s no easy diplomatic solution here: The pope and Mr. Trump will continue to differ, and neither is going to keep quiet about it.Yet they can and should cooperate where the big picture’s concerned, despite their disagreements:When a pope and a president work together for peace, without compromising with evil, they can achieve what’s otherwise impossible.President Reagan and Pope John Paul II proved that when they won the Cold War without the superpower showdown that had been feared for 40 years.It wasn’t because Reagan didn’t use force — he did, on many occasions, and he built up the military as never before.Yet he also used the power of moral truth, just as the pope did, to move the peoples of Eastern Europe, and ultimately those of the Soviet Union itself, to throw off tyranny.More than the Catholic vote in the midterm elections is at stake.Republicans will be crushed if they lose it, to be sure — and both religious liberty and the right to life will suffer as a result, something Pope Leo can hardly be complacent about.Yet there will also be global repercussions from the president and pope condemning one another, when their voices together can achieve so much good for a world assailed by a cacophony of evil.Creators.com

Papal–Presidential Quarrel a Missed Opportunity for America and the Catholic Church

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