It’s amazing what will get Christians, and even Catholics, to accept 21st century anti-Catholicism, especially anti-Catholicism in America, where religious liberty is meant to be embraced. Nonetheless, Trump gets them to do so. During his second tenure as the president, his administration has been attacking Catholics, sending ICE to Catholic parishes, denying funding for various Catholic charities, and even attacking Catholic rights in the military. It should not be surprising that those who defend anything and everything Trump does would ultimately find his harsh treatment of Pope Leo XIV acceptable because the pope, speaking as a moral, as well as spiritual, authority, called out Trump’s unjust war Iran. Trump’s supporters responded by saying the pope “shouldn’t get political,” despite the way many of them are Christian nationalists who are trying to merge their vision of the church with the state (as can be seen by the way Hegseth is orchestrating a Christian nationalist takeover of the military). When Catholic bishops, or even popes, said things they liked, Trump and his supporters embraced them, and never once suggested they should be silent. It is only when a pope (or other religious leader) speaks against them that we find Trump, and those with him, like J.D. Vance, suggest the pope should stay out of politics (and, apparently, even theology). Really? I can’t help but see how duplicitous they are; they want to use religion, and embrace anything a religious person says which agrees with them, but they will denounce everything else. The reason for this is obvious: they want religion to be an ideological tool to use for their own private purposes, nothing else; they don’t want to change their ways to meet the expectations religions impose on their followers.
I would like to say I am surprised at how many Christians (and Catholics) have fallen for and now promote anti-Catholic rhetoric which has emerged since Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV. I would like to say I am surprised that a typical anti-Catholic apologetic trope which suggests Catholics do not know Scripture is being employed against the pope. I would like to say I am surprised, but I am not, because I have seen this building up for a long time.
It seems to me that many of those who criticize the pope (or Catholics), suggesting they don’t know Scripture, often are the ones who have not studied Scripture, and do not know its contents. They might know a few select passages which they take out of context and turn into absolutes, using them to interpret or ignore any other Scripture that goes against their ideological vision, but they have not studied the text as a whole. Often enough, especially when they try to use Scripture to support their bloodlust, they show they have ignored the rest of Scripture, Scripture which contends against violence and promotes the way of peace, showing why their simple interpretation is invalid. All texts should be interpreted through what is said by the rest of Scripture, and especially the Gospels, where we learn what Christ taught. Instead, they choose texts which were written and were about events which took place long before Christ was born, during a time which Christ himself said God allowed things to be done due to the hardness of the hearts of the people and not because God approved of them.
Pope Leo IV certainly knows Scripture, and has studied it extensively, in a depth which few Christians ever do. He knows that, for Christians, Scripture should always be interpreted through the lens of Christ, that is, based upon what Christ taught: blessed are the peacemakers, turn the other cheek, those who live by the sword shall die by the sword, and the way of the kingdom of God is not the way of earthly might or war, but the way of the cross. Violence in the Torah, violence in the Tanakh, like stoning people to death, was not what God wanted: consistently, throughout Scripture, we find God promoting peace, not war, justice, and not oppression. This is why David was not able to build the Temple, because his hands were full of blood.
Jesus was very political in his message, which is why politicians, Jewish and Roman alike, had him executed. Jesus promoted the poor and warned the rich who exploited the poor that God stood with the poor they abused. There were times that Jesus’ critics suggested Jesus didn’t know, or didn’t follow, the Torah (which was oral, and not just written); this is why they asked him why his followers didn’t obey it when it told them to wash their hands, or when it told them not to work on the Sabbath, or when it told them to stone various sinners. Jesus revealed that the Torah was not to be used as a tool for political violence and repression. God is a God of life, of mercy, of love. This is exactly the message Pope Leo XIV promotes when he speaks against Trump’s war against Iran.
Ever since it is clear that Pope Leo XIV will continue to promote Christ’s peace, a peace established with justice and not war, I have seen a coordinated effort on twitter (and social media in general), to misrepresent his position, to misrepresent Scripture, in order to have Catholics follow Trump instead of him. I’m sure many claiming to be Catholics on twitter are not Catholic. I’m sure there are many bot accounts, and many paid influencers, behind these attacks. It is too coordinated, with many of the same bad talking points used. For example, after Pope Leo XIV met with David Axelrod, I find many saying the same thing: Axelrod (and Obama) control the pope, and that is why Pope Leo XIV spoke out against Trump. They ignore that the pope has given this message of peace before meeting with Axelrod, and it is the same message that previous popes gave (such as St. John Paul II with his criticism of the Iraq war). This attack, using the pope’s meeting with Axelrod to suggest something dubious, makes me wonder how many who make it have read, understood, and believe Scripture, as it is the same kind of criticism which many made against Jesus when he met with and talked to tax collectors.
I am not surprised about the anti-Catholicism coming from the Trump administration. I expected it. It was clear that the Christian nationalist support behind Trump would eventually take on Catholicism. Again, all we have to do is look to Hegseth, and the ideologues he embraces, ideologues who want to deny religious liberty to Catholics, to see what Trump has brought into the government with him. I am not even surprised with the way many Catholics have embraced anti-Catholic tropes, because they are more ideologues than Catholics. What I am surprised at is how many Catholic leaders, while responding to what Trump has said, have tried to do so in the weakest manner possible so that they can end up praising Trump, as Bishop Robert did when he said:
I am very grateful for the many ways that the Trump administration has reached out to Catholics and other people of faith. It has been a high honor to serve on the Religious Liberty Commission. No President in my lifetime has shown a greater dedication to defending our first liberty. All that said, I think the President owes the Pope an apology.
Barron has been trying to downplay the pope’s criticism of Trump’s war against Iran. He has not been forthright on it. He has not spoken with the prophetic authority a bishop should speak from. Now, I am not surprised at Barron, or others like him, such as those involved with the Napa Institute, doing all they can to ignore the pope; what I am surprised is how bold they are in their attempt to misinterpret the pope for the sake of Trump. They don’t even hide it, despite the anti-Catholicism which is now a clear part of the Trump administration. Like St. Thomas More, like St. Thomas Becket, they must decide who they will follow, the pope, and Christ’s message of peace and justice, or Trump. I pray they have some sort of spiritual revelation so that like Becket, they can make an about-face and no longer be beholden to a secular authority making war against the pope. But I would not be surprised that they end up following the likes of Cranmer.
* This Is Another Post From My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series
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