Pope Leo has gotten into a fight with President Trump. As usual, Trump didn’t start it. The Pope did, via anti-Trump posts on social media attacking, among other things, the conflict in Iran. That led Trump to fire back, and the Pope has kept the argument going, too. This was Trump a few days ago:
And more recently:
I think Trump is entirely in the right here. When Leo ventured into politics by criticizing Trump on policy matters, and–shamefully–doing it in the guise of religious instruction, he called for Trump’s response. The president is no more obliged to suffer ill-founded attacks from a pope than from anyone else. If Leo wants to do politics, he can expect politics in return. And on the merits, his criticisms of Trump were wrong.
It turns out that Leo, when he was plain Robert Prevost of Chicago, was an “out” left-winger who attacked Republicans on social media:
Pope Francis was bad, too. Several years ago, my wife and I were in Rome and hired a guide to take us through the Vatican and the Vatican Museum. She was a lovely young woman, and obviously a serious Catholic. Toward the end of the day, after we had gotten to know one another, she asked what I thought of Pope Francis. I said it was probably none of my business, since I am not a Catholic, but I don’t like him. He keeps talking about politics and economics, about which he knows nothing. He should stick to religion. Our guide was discreet, but it was obvious that she agreed.
The Catholic Church needs to up its game. Either the College of Cardinals should choose a pope who will stick to religion, where he presumably knows what he is talking about, or, if they insist in dabbling in politics, they should choose someone who is not a clueless left-winger.
