New York
A peace- and faith-focused sermon delivered throughout Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City did little to clear the minds of some parishioners who walked out of church saying they remained distraught over the extraordinary conflict that erupted between Pope Leo and President Trump per week in the past.
Some Catholic supporters of the president stated they took problem with Trump’s fiery feedback about Pope Leo, the first American pontiff. In the 2024 presidential election, Catholic voters broke for President Donald Trump, with almost 6 in 10 voting to reelect the president, in line with a CNN exit ballot.
“I like Donald a lot, but he needs to calm down,” stated Lola Reese after attending Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s.
Growing up Catholic in New Orleans taught her the significance of the separation of church and state, Reese stated.
The president’s back-and-forth with the pope would possibly harm his relationship along with his supporters, she stated. She referred to as for the president to “back off and kind of calm down his little bitty, tiny streak of a little meanness here and there.”
Reese’s sentiment was shared by a number of churchgoers, together with those that stated they’d voted for the president however noticed his current feedback as out of line.
Anita Bauman, a Catholic Trump voter from Pennsylvania, stated the president’s feedback had been “colossally stupid.”
“I don’t think it helps the president at all,” stated Bauman, who supported the president’s actions in Iran, the place in early April US-based rights group HRANA stated greater than 3,600 individuals had been killed since a joint US-Israeli bombing marketing campaign started in February.
“I do think that things needed to be done in Iran,” she stated. “I think that regime was dangerous, but I don’t think picking a fight with the pope or trying to school the pope on theology is a good idea at all.”
The president’s unprecedented — and largely one-sided — battle with the Chicago-born Augustinian seemingly sparked final week, when Pope Leo stated he hoped the president would find an “off-ramp” to the US-Israeli struggle with Iran and referred to as the president’s rhetoric concerning the Iranian individuals “truly unacceptable.” In a uncommon occasion within the historical past of the trendy Catholic Church, Pope Leo referred to the sitting president by title in no less than certainly one of his remarks.
The president, who together with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has typically invoked God and Biblical metaphors to justify the struggle, responded forcefully on social media: “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” He added he doesn’t need a pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, who thinks it’s “terrible that America attacked Venezuela” or “who criticizes the President of the United States.” The pope has not stated he thought it was OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Soon after, Trump additional infected some Christian supporters when he posted an AI-generated picture to Truth Social final Monday depicting himself as a Christ-like figure therapeutic a sick particular person with American flags and eagles within the background.
By later within the afternoon, the put up was deleted. Trump claimed he thought the picture confirmed him as a health care provider.
Vice President JD Vance, who transformed to Catholicism in maturity, had his personal pointed phrases for Pope Leo. Speaking at a Turning Point USA occasion on Tuesday, he urged the pontiff to be “careful” when speaking about theology.
The chief of the Catholic Church has insisted he’s not interested in any feud with the president.
“It was looked at as if I was trying to debate again the president, which is not in my interest at all,” he stated Saturday on board the papal aircraft from Cameroon to Angola, a part of an 11-day trip to Africa.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do,” he stated earlier.
Like his predecessor, Pope Francis, who was a vocal advocate for peace in Ukraine and Gaza, Pope Leo has broadly condemned struggle and criticized the US authorities’s remedy of migrants, which he referred to as “extremely disrespectful.” The pope hasn’t visited the US since his choice on the papal conclave in May 2025 and doesn’t have plans to go to this yr, in line with the Vatican.
Neither Pope Leo nor Pope Francis are the primary pontiffs to talk up about politics, together with US army actions. Pope John Paul II was a vocal critic of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, calling all war a “defeat for humanity.”
Chase Lerew, a 24-year-old Georgia native who stated he transformed to Catholicism a number of weeks in the past, stated he discovered the president’s assaults on the pope “distressing.”
“We haven’t seen an authority figure trying to exert this much control on the papacy since the Avignon Papacy,” Lerew stated, referencing the result of the 14th-century battle between the French monarchy and the papacy that noticed the French authorities exerting energy over a number of popes. “Seeing a lot of Catholics kind of bow down to a secular authority instead of a religious one has been disheartening.”
It’s not simply strange churchgoers who’ve had sturdy reactions to the president’s feedback. Catholic leaders, too, have rallied behind the pope.
“I am disheartened that the president chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father,” stated Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the pope a politician.”
Some Catholic Democratic politicians have additionally condemned the president’s feedback, together with Sen. Mark Kelly, who referred to as the assaults “abhorrent” in a post on X.
For Mary Meehan, the president’s picture of himself as a Christ-like determine was each offensive to Catholics and considerably unsurprising.
“I think that our president does things off the cuff a lot.”
Meehan, who has spent 12 years attending providers at Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish, a Roman Catholic church in Brooklyn, New York, stated she felt empathy for the president although she discovered the picture offensive.
As Catholics, “we all love God above all things,” she stated after the church’s Saturday night Mass. “And that’s hurtful to us when we see him doing that because we feel sorry for the president not realizing the pain he’s giving to all the people that love not only God but love him so much, too.”
During Monsignor David Cassato’s sermon on the church, he didn’t contact on the president’s feedback.
But Trump’s remarks have come up in some conversations with parishioners, Cassato stated.
“It’s a very strange time, in the world and in the world of politics,” he stated.
He prayed for the pontiff and president to succeed in an “understanding” — and says he believes each males finally need peace.
The US is residence to round an estimated 50 million adult Catholics, in line with the Pew Research Center, making up round 20% of the overall inhabitants.
It’s a vital voting bloc, which has more and more voted for Republicans up to now few a long time, in line with Ryan Burge, a political scientist who researches the impression of faith on American life. Common Republican insurance policies like restrictions on abortion and opposition to same-sex marriage have historically attracted Catholic voters to the celebration, he stated.
Trump has usually sought to combine Christianity into his authorities, appointing an evangelical non secular adviser to guide a newly created White House faith office and creating by executive order a “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.”
The president’s battle with the pope “isn’t going to help” win over Catholic voters within the midterm elections, Burge stated.
He famous Pope Leo is extraordinarily common: Americans seen him most favorably of 14 worldwide public figures evaluated by Gallup in 2025. Archbishop Ronald Aldon Hicks echoed the sentiment, saying Sunday, “The majority of our Catholics, they are very happy with our pope.”
The president, alternatively, has confronted falling approval scores, with approval scores for his dealing with of the financial system falling to a new career low of 31% earlier this month, in line with a CNN ballot.
One Sunday churchgoer, Valerie Fodser, stated the feedback replicate “just who Trump is.”
“He just feels he can say and do what he wants, and we’ve seen that even with the war,” she stated. “He knows that people will push back against it, but he likes that pushback. He loves that pushback.”
Sabina Hitchen, who was visiting St. Patrick’s Cathedral from Chicago Sunday, stated she thinks the president ought to “stay in his lane.”
“The pope’s lane is leading us right as Christians,” she stated.
Hitchen stated she hopes the president “could focus his goals on leading the country.”
“I would say he could take some notes from the pope on kindness, taking care of our neighbors, and things like that.”
