A Year of Contrasts
Shortly after the election of Pope Leo XIV, New York Times columnist David French wrote what many were already thinking: Donald Trump is no longer the most important American in the world. The selection of the first U.S.-born pope, Cardinal Robert Prevost, after the death of Pope Francis was the Catholic news story of the year. Yet the two leaders couldn’t be more different from each other, in both temperament and priorities.
The second-most-important American leader seems intent on implementing policies that go against nearly every Catholic moral priority, including on the reproductive issues that likely prompted many conservative Catholics to vote for him. In contrast, the pope from Chicago has put Catholic social teaching front and center.
Although only a few months into his papacy, Leo has already shown himself to be a leader who is willing to consider all sides of an issue, more prone to listening than spouting off, yet not afraid to challenge the world on issues of peace and justice. An attention-hog he is not. Meanwhile, the U.S. president uses social media to denigrate murder victims and to share a meme of himself literally dumping sewage on the American people. His narcissism has been on full display since his first term, but in this second term it’s even more apparent that Trump cares only about his own image and lining his own pockets.
Since Trump took power in January, even those who made dire predictions have been surprised at how quickly authoritarianism has arrived. Could we have imagined that the “mass deportations” promised at the GOP convention would involve masked, unidentified agents smashing car windows, violently assaulting elderly people and pregnant women, and using chemical weapons against protesters, including clergy? Or that, while Trump promised only to deport violent criminals (the “worst of the worst”), less than 10 percent of those arrested would be convicted of violent crimes? Or that some of those innocent people would be deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador where they would be tortured—and that government officials would pose, smiling, for pictures there?
Immediately upon taking office, Trump made his most deadly move so far: the near elimination of foreign aid administered through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which saved an estimated 92 million lives during two decades by reducing maternal and child deaths, fighting malnutrition, and preventing and treating infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Although the administration then eliminated much of the data collection and publication that would confirm how many lives will been lost, researchers predict it will be in the hundreds of thousands per year. Journalists have already documented increases in children being trafficked, dying of hunger, and in danger of dying of thirst. The U.S. aid literally disappeared overnight, leaving countries scrambling to fill the gaps with other donors, funding which, for the most part, has not materialized.
As the end of the first year of Trump’s second term nears, political attention is focused on his association with sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, on escalating military action against Venezuela, and on the affordability issues facing everyday Americans. His public approval rating has hit a new low, with only 36 percent of Americans favoring his handling of the economy. Some analysis has found that about half of the policy goals in Project 2025—the right-wing manifesto that Trump tried to distance himself from during the campaign—have already been implemented, from cutting DEI programs to dismantling government through mass firings to obliterating progressive educational, environmental, and health policies.
While his focus is global, Pope Leo has not hesitated to comment on goings-on in his home country. He has criticized the mass deportations in the U.S. multiple times, calling U.S. treatment of migrants “inhumane” and “extremely disrespectful.” On foreign policy, Leo has urged the United States not to invade Venezuela and cautioned Trump not to fracture the U.S.-Europe alliance when it comes to settling the Russia-Ukraine war. He has signaled that he believes that being “pro-life” includes more than just opposing abortion, an oversimplification that has dominated U.S. Catholic discourse and led to an association of the Church with the GOP.
Leo’s first words when he greeted the world from the loggia at St. Peter’s were “Peace be with all of you,” and he has pleaded for peace ever since, calling for ceasefires in Gaza and Ukraine. In his first message for the World Day of Peace, he cautioned against viewing war as inevitable and normal, decried obscene military budgets that use money meant for human development, and reaffirmed Church teaching that opposes deterrence based on military force. Instead, he urged an “unarmed and disarming peace” that comes from faith in a God who loves all.
In his first document, an apostolic exhortation begun by Francis, Leo reaffirmed the Church’s commitment to the poor and the common good—and, echoing his predecessor, did not hesitate to critique elitist economic ideologies. The first paragraph of Dilexi te emphasizes the countercultural Gospel message, citing Mary’s Magnificat: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
On internal Church matters, Pope Leo has indicated support for synodality, the process of consultation and listening that attempts to make the Church more participatory. But the decision to move discernment about women deacons out of the formal synod process—and the subsequent report from a Vatican commission opposing restoring women to the diaconate—seems inconsistent with Leo’s commitment to the excluded in his own institution.
We will learn more about Leo’s plans for the Church after his first consistory in January. But his appointments so far, including fellow Chicagoan Ronald Hicks to be archbishop of New York, indicate that he favors moderate men with pastoral sensibilities. Such an episcopate in the United States might mean he wouldn’t have to push so hard to get a response to the inhumane treatment of migrants from the U.S. bishops’ conference.
When Leo was elected, Trump once again made it about himself, posting that it is “such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope,” adding that he looked forward to meeting Leo in what would be “a very meaningful moment.” If and when that happens, we can only hope that some of the U.S.-born pope’s values and mannerisms rub off on the U.S. president.
No comments:
Post a Comment