Friend,
There is no doubt that President Trump’s post insulting Pope Leo crossed, again, a line of decorum that plays an important part in diplomacy and sets the temperature for interactions between the two. Calls for an apology are well founded.
But we also need to reasonably evaluate the Vatican-vs.-Trump narrative: too many people are trying to turn a public disagreement into a grand showdown between the two.
That is false, and Catholics should reject it.
Archbishop Paul Coakley and Pope Leo himself, this morning, made the key point clear: the Pope is not a politician, not a partisan operator, and not a rival to the President of the United States. He is the Vicar of Christ. His role is to speak moral truth, defend human dignity, and call leaders to pursue peace.
The President needs to hear that in a way he understands.
Of course, some of the Pope’s statements may sound out of step with the tone, assumptions, or priorities of American politics. Fine. That does not mean he is “anti-American.” It does not mean he is attacking the United States. And it certainly does not mean Catholics should be manipulated into choosing between the Church and their country.
The Pope also needs to understand that many Americans view his interventions as overtly political and aligned with one side of the political spectrum. Catholics who have been paying attention note that no such condemnation of the loss of life through abortion ever came from Rome to Catholic President Joe Biden during the last pontificate, despite that evil ending millions of lives.
Enter Ambassador Brian Burch. As the founder and first president of CatholicVote, and now as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Burch is uniquely positioned to serve as a credible bridge between Washington and Rome. He understands the convictions, language, and concerns on both sides, and that gives him an especially important role at a moment when honest mediation, fair translation, and cooler heads are urgently needed.
What American Catholics should oppose is the deliberate effort to manufacture a large-scale confrontation between the Vatican and the United States, between Pope Leo and President Trump, or between fidelity to the Holy Father and love of country. Parts of the media are pushing that narrative. So are identifiable bad actors, including some inside the Church. They want conflict. They feed on confusion. And they benefit from division.
Catholics should be smarter than that.
There is no reason this disagreement should become a larger rupture. But it will if reckless voices keep treating every papal statement as a partisan attack and every political disagreement as proof of betrayal.
Once again, we must delineate between moral principles and the realm of politics.
But for now, let’s pray for wisdom for both leaders. And do not let others manufacture a conflict that does not have to exist.
Go forward bravely,
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