The Clash Between Pope and President

The sight of the first American pope, Leo XIV, assailing the American president, Donald Trump, over matters of war and peace is a stunning throwback to the days when Bishops of Rome clashed with secular sovereigns. The Associated Press reckons that the “most influential American critic doesn’t live in the country but at the Vatican.” It is, the news service ventures, “an unprecedented situation” between a son of Queens and a prelate from the Windy City.“Simpy unacceptable” is how the pope, in a dramatic appearance outside of Castel Gandolfo, described President Trump’s rhetoric in respect of Iran. The successor to St. Peter has also denounced “the imperialist occupation of the world” and declared that God ignores the prayers of “those who wage war.” On Friday the pontiff condemned the “blasphemy of war and the brutality of business.” He declares that “God does not bless any conflict.” A dispatch this week in the Free Press, denied by both the Vatican and Foggy Bottom, reports that Leo’s opposition to the war precipitated a confrontation at the Pentagon when “Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned the Holy See’s then-ambassador to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, to the Pentagon” for a dressing down. One American official supposedly invoked the Avignon Papacy. That’s not, we reckon, a subject that is broached every day at the Pentagon. The reference is to a series of seven popes — or antipopes, depending on who is telling the story — who, between 1307 and 1376, resided not at Rome but instead in southern France. The schism, called the papacy’s “Babylonian captivity” after the ancient exiles from Jerusalem, was precipitated by tension between the popes and the French Crown. The threat of Avignon, then, amounts to the specter of a papacy checkmated by kings — or, perhaps, a president. For those who think current relations between the White House and the Vatican are bad, some perspective is offered by the Investiture Controversy, which culminated in Pope Gregory VII excommunicating Emperor Henry IV in 1076. Mr. Trump, who is not a Catholic, is not in immediate danger of such drastic censure. A different perspective on the Iran conflict has been taken by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who in a press briefing quoted the Psalmist’s invocation that “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.” Pope Leo, meanwhile, is set to lead a “Prayer Vigil for Peace” on Saturday at St. Peter’s Basilica. The faithful, he proclaims, are “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”That would be news to, say, Pope Julius II, who in the High Renaissance led papal armies into battle himself and was known as “Il Papa Terribile.” It was rumored that he chose his name in homage not to some saint but instead as a nod to Julius Caesar. The basilica in which Pope Leo will stand on Saturday was rebuilt by Julius II, who also is owed credit for commissioning Raphael and Michelangelo to adorn its walls and ceilings. Pope Leo has reportedly rebuffed Mr. Trump’s invitation to attend America’s 250th anniversary celebrations this summer. We’d like to see His Holiness change his mind. No matter the pope’s disagreement with this president, the presence of the first American to wear the Ring of the Fisherman would be a powerful acknowledgment on our semiquincentennial of the boon of religious liberty that America has vouchsafed to persons of all faiths.

The Clash Between Pope and President

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