My last column contained an Easter message about peace. I wanted to continue on that vein in today’s column as the conflict between the American president and the first American-born pope increases and intensifies. This is not the first time that a pope and the president have found themselves with opposing viewpoints in regard to a war in the Middle East. When President George W. Bush visited Pope John Paul II 22 years ago, the pope criticized the war in Iraq as Bush sat next to him. He also called out the Americans for their conduct at the now-infamous Abu Ghraib prison, where just weeks before the visit between the president and the pope, it had become clear that American servicemembers were engaging in torture. And how did President Bush respond to the criticism? He called being in the pope’s presence an “awesome experience.”
Contrast that reaction to criticism over a war in the Middle East to the current president’s reactions to Pope Leo XIV’s critique of America and Israel’s war in Iran. The president has decided, apparently, to pick a fight with the pope. After an April 7 social media message where President Trump said that “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Leo said that such rhetoric was “truly unacceptable.” Leo continued by saying while there “are certainly questions of international law, much more than that, it is a moral question.”
Thank goodness that Trump didn’t follow through on his civilization-ending threats, but he did respond to the pope’s rebuke, saying in a social media post, “Pope Leo is WEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” What does that even mean? The pope is not running for the Illinois 2nd Congressional seat; he is the head of the largest Christian denomination in the world. The president’s thoughts on the pope continued in the post, “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.”
Once again, we see how thin-skinned the man in the Oval Office is. He will suffer no insult or slight without an overwhelming response. After criticizing the head of the Catholic church, Trump proceeded to post an AI image of himself as Jesus healing an ill man. After considerable, and understandable, pushback from his usual allies within the conservative Christian community, he took the post down and claimed, that he thought it was “me as a doctor,” which of course nobody believes.
It’s interesting because a year ago, Tim Busch, the head of the conservative Napa Institute, and a champion of conservative Catholic causes, called Trump the “most Christian [president] he’s ever seen.” But one has to wonder if Mr. Busch still feels that way a year later. Is this what passes for Christianity these days? Criticizing the pope and posting oneself as Jesus himself? Is the president more Christian than the pope himself?
The pope’s message of peace is based in scripture, while a president threatening to erase whole civilizations is not. It isn’t surprising that presidents and popes would have differing opinions when it comes to global conflicts. One is elected to represent a nation-state on the world stage, to protect and defend its vital and national interests, and while we can debate if recent conflicts in the Middle East have done so, it can at least be argued that the presidents were working in the nation’s interests. The other has a responsibility to provide moral and spiritual guidance to the nearly 1.5 billion Catholics worldwide. When those you are responsible for transcend national borders, it is understandable if you are an advocate for peace between nations.
In Matthew 22:21, Jesus says, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The answer Jesus provides is in response to a question which was meant to trap him into advocating for not paying your taxes. He asks whose image is on the coin, and when they reply “Caesar’s,” he says that it’s Caesar’s money. The point of this story in the gospel is to tell believers that there is both secular authority here on Earth and heavenly authority. President Trump would do well to crack open his Bible and meditate on that story. The pope doesn’t answer to him, and owes him no loyalty and to Trump, there can be no greater sin.