On the Current Attack on Catholicism by the Trump Administration

By Andrew R. Duckworth

In some ways, I have been attempting to listen more and be slower to speak. The value of doing such is practically immeasurable. And, in other ways, I am just as quick to share and comment on every article to swing across my social media feeds. In a time in which social media is continuing to be an ever-growing outrage machine, it is difficult to come away with informed thought. On this topic, I am choosing to be as careful as I possibly can be while also maintaining my dignity and identity as a Catholic Christian.

At this point, it isn’t a secret. President Trump, by his own words, does not like Pope Leo XIV. To my knowledge, the United States is still a free country and you’re under no obligation to like any particular person. This would certainly extend to people in positions of power. However, my grievances are not over whether or not any person likes the Pope. Plenty do not. Whether a person likes someone or not is of no consequence to me. My grievances, instead, are the manner in which those aspects are communicated, who is doing the communicating, and what messaging that sends to millions of Catholics within the United States, as well as the entire body of Catholics around the world, in which there are 1.4 billion members, not including those who are currently in the process of becoming Catholic.

First, let’s begin with the manner of communication. It is also no secret that much of the most abhorrent rhetoric to ever grace, using that word lightly, social media has come from President Trump himself. It has become a bit of a hallmark at this point for a few reasons: no president before has utilized social media to the extent that the current president has and certainly no president has been as crass and careless with their words. I can write volumes on my many disagreements with this president, but this writing is specifically dealing with this issue. Apparently, Trump seems either not to understand the role of the Pope or pretends not to. Pope Leo XIV has several duties to fulfill. One is to lead the church as the leader of the largest Christian sect—Christian, not the wishy-washy take and leave what you want Christianity, but the Christianity that carefully and faithfully follows the words and deeds of Christ himself. It is absolutely true that Jesus tells us to be a people of peace in both word and deed. To stress what I mean by deed, Jesus healed the ear of one of His captors who was struck by Peter’s sword when Peter was trying to defend Jesus. He tells Peter and, by extension, us that those who live by the sword will die by the sword, a manner of saying that violence solves nothing. Jesus preaches a Gospel of peace, and the Gospel is meant to transform us. As the leader of the Church, Pope Leo seeks to keep this message alive—Peace among people of goodwill. Yet, the Pope, being also one of evangelism, must make sure that the Church does not stray from this message of peace for those outside of the Church as well. He is called to be an example.

Therefore, it serves not only as counter productive for a sitting president to express his disapproval on this matter—it is a bit akin to saying “you know, I don’t really like zebras that have stripes. I like the ones that stand on two legs and do a tap dance with a cute little top hat.” Trump, apparently, would appreciate a Pope that does not preach or live the nature of Christ. I thank my God that we have an example such as Pope Leo who does live the example. Without such an example, would the Church persist as the Church? Well, maybe? After all, Popes of the past, as well as priests, have lived in rather ungodly manners and yet the gates of Hell have not prevailed against it. But the Church and her leaders have an obligation to live a life that conveys Christ’s message.

When I first saw the words that Trump posted, my initial reaction was that anti-Catholicism would make a startling comeback in the United States. Other countries have certainly experienced anti-Catholicism, and I in no way mean to minimize such things. However, there is a memory in the United States many Catholics have of anti-Catholic rhetoric and sentiments. I faced it growing up in my largely Protestant town. If it wasn’t explicit, it was implicit in the most directed manner possible. And then, there is still the memory carried through families. Many Irish-American families and Italian-American families still carry the pain of what explicit anti-Catholic ideas do—the spitting at Catholic immigrants upon their arrival, the signs in shops stating “Irish need not apply,” the immediate distrust and disapproval by Protestant populations that then lied about our motives, lied about us personally, and lied to their entire congregations concerning our beliefs and practices. These are still carried down by families that once experienced them. They are still carried today by individual Catholics that have experienced such. So, for me, like many other Catholics, this was not just a few jabs at the Pope. It was a personal slap in the face to Catholics not just in this country, but around the entire world.

For someone who has long talked a big talk about being the “peace” president, Trump sure seems to have a problem with it when an actual authority concerning peace calls him out on his hypocrisy. I have plenty of thoughts concerning the current conflict overseas. I will refrain from being explicit about them here, other than to say my thoughts on the matter largely align with what Pope Leo XIV expresses.

And then there was the now infamous image posted from his Truth Social (ironic) feed where Trump posted an image of himself looking suspiciously just like other images of Jesus as a divine healer. He, of course, claimed that this wasn’t his intent and that he intended to appear as a doctor… I can’t in good conscience take him at his word here. No one sees an image like that and automatically thinks “Oh! A doctor!” This is where he chose to not only slap Catholics in the face, but practically every other branch of Christianity as well. And, it really comes as no surprise. I think about the individuals that he has surrounding him concerning faith—figures like Paula White-Cain who never misses an opportunity to compare Trump to Jesus. These are figures who don’t seem to carry a message of Christ, but a message of vengeance and hatred based on spiritual affiliations. They are, at the very least, unapproachable for those outside the faith. I can’t think of figures less Christ-like. Thus, I hesitate to call them Christian at all. They have their own missions with their own will to follow.

While I have long respected Bishop Robert Barron for everything he has done for Catholicism, from education to his often gentle approach to disagreement, I feel as though this should have been the time to be blunt. To his credit, he did eventually note that the President should apologize to Pope Leo XIV, an apology that we all realize will never come. However, to stay on the same board with figures who do not, and blatantly so, represent the values of Christianity I feel is an egregious mistake. I also feel as though an apology at the highest level is due to Catholics and other Christians across the board. Finally, Christians are beginning to embrace a mission of peace, and the president, due to his own agenda, snubs it. To go further would be to step into my own thoughts on the current situation in the Middle East, which I, again, do not intend to comment heavily on here other than to say that peace is the best policy, and not the pseudo-peace theology of “peace through strength” which leads to no peace at all. If peace is the goal, then peace should be the outcome—something we are currently not seeing.