The papacy is one of the most unique institutions in the world. The pope is not “elected” in any meaningful sense. A bunch of older males who played the same kind of political games that Republicans, Democrats, Communists, and Socialists play to get ahead, to become “cardinal,” meet to fill a vacancy following the death of a pope.
How a new pope is chosen is steeped in tradition and ritual. It’s all baloney. The pomp and circumstance were created to hide the simple fact that choosing a pope is no different than choosing a CEO or president of a large company. The assembled cardinals decide who should lead the church, the same way a board of directors chooses a new leader: someone who can best advance the goals and interests of the Catholic church.
There’s nothing holy about it. There’s nothing sacred in the process. It’s politics, plain and simple.
Pope Leo XIV played the game exceptionally well in order to get elected last year. He had a huge obstacle to overcome; he is an American (and Peruvian), and there is a large faction in the Vatican that hates America.
Leo was seen as a compromise candidate who, although close to the radical Pope Francis, who died in 2025, was not considered as confrontational as the former pope.
That belief turned out to be very wrong.
In April 2025, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica stated that Leo was seen as a “cosmopolitan and shy figure” who was “appreciated by conservatives and progressives” within the church. The pope destroyed that illusion by going after Donald Trump in a very un-papal way.
On Sunday, Trump let loose on Leo for his constant sermonizing. Of course, that’s what popes do, but Trump saw an opening to attack Leo on very secular grounds.
I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And 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.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote.
“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise,” Trump said. “He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
I don’t think there’s any doubt that the church considered an American for pope because Donald Trump was president. Trump’s roundup of illegal aliens was bound to cause friction with the Vatican.
Leo tried to sound diplomatic in his response, which was, in itself, a shocking departure from tradition. Popes aren’t supposed to play the tit-for-tat political game.
“I don’t want to get into a debate with him [Trump],” the U.S.-born pope said. “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”
The pope is referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking “the American people to pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ.”
“We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, Leo told reporters. The pope said that “to put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think, is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is.”
Leo has entered the political fray with his words and has lost the moral authority to comment as the leader of one billion Roman Catholics. Commenting as a famous religious celebrity is perfectly fine, but getting in the mud and rolling around with a politician should be beneath Leo and the papacy.
“I do not look at my role as being political, a politician,” Leo said. “Too many people are suffering in the world today, too many innocent people are being killed, and someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.
Lots of people are standing up and saying that war is bad and that innocent people shouldn’t have to die. The pope’s message has been diluted by his comments about Trump and the war.
And in response to a question from the Associated Press, the pope said that “to put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is.”
“I am sorry to hear that, but I will continue on with what I believe is the mission of the church in the world today,” he said.
A reporter for the New York Times also asked the pope for a comment on the Truth Social post, to which he replied: “It’s ironic the name of the site itself, say no more.”
The direct responses on hot-button topics are rare from a pope at the start of his travels, who tend to avoid commenting on controversial topics so as to not divert attention away from the trip itself. Yet Leo did not shy away from questions around Trump’s post, in which he said Leo should not strive to be a politician and that he was only elected to the papacy in response to Trump’s election.
The pope instead insisted on his responsibility to speak out against war in his capacity as a peacemaker.
Who is listening to the pope in America? Only 13% of American Catholics consistently attend weekly Mass, pray daily, and go to confession yearly, according to Pew Research.
The percentage of Catholics in the U.S. who attend weekly mass is less than 30%. America is not fertile ground for a belief in papal supremacy. The fact that Leo was an American probably helps him, but as America becomes more secular, the idea that the pope wields an inordinate amount of influence is unrealistic.
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