News

Poll: Most Americans disapprove of Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo

by Kate Scanlon - OSV News May 6, 2026

A combination photo shows Pope Leo XIV talking with journalists about the Iran war before leaving the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, March 24, 2026, and U.S. President Donald Trump speaking during a news conference at the White House in Washington April 6. Americans broadly disapprove of Trump's comments about Pope Leo and an image that appeared to depict the president as Jesus, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. Credit: OSV News photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane/Evan Vucci, Reuters

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A new poll published the day after President Donald Trump renewed his series of social media and verbal attacks on Pope Leo XIV showed Americans broadly disapprove.

According to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll published May 6, most Americans disapprove of the president’s comments about the pope, with even more disapproving of the recently posted and deleted AI-generated image on the president’s social media account appearing to depict himself as Jesus.

 

Leo Looks to the Council

John Courtney Murray’s work shows why American Catholics should, too.

Stephen McNulty

May 5, 2026

Vatican II

Pope Leo XIV

Please email comments to letters@commonwealmagazine.org.

Fr. John Courtney Murray (National Book Foundation)

One year into Leo’s pontificate, the first American pope has hardly kept quiet about his priorities. Leo’s firm stance against war, authoritarianism, and economic injustice was on vivid display during his pastoral visit to Africa, and his defense of migrants is sure to be made even sharper on his upcoming symbolic trip to the island of Lampedusa on July 4. It’s surprising, though, that another of Leo’s priorities seems to garner relatively scant attention: his renewed focus on the Second Vatican Council, which Leo stressed in his first papal address to the cardinals and strikingly called the “the guiding star of the Church’s journey today” as he launched a catechetical series of Wednesday audiences on the Council. 

 

Church against ‘all nuclear weapons’ says Leo after latest Trump claims

Patrick Hudson

06 May 2026, The Tablet

‘The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace. I simply hope to be heard for the sake of the value of the word of God.’

The Pope asserted the Church’s opposition to nuclear weapons and teaching on “just war” after further public criticisms from the US president.

“If someone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the Gospel, let him do so truthfully,” Pope Leo told reporters as he left Castel Gandolfo on Tuesday evening. “For years, the Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt on that point.”

After one year, nuns see Pope Leo XIV advancing justice in his own way

 

After one year, nuns see Pope Leo XIV advancing justice in his own way

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Women Deacons, the Vatican with Dr. Phyllis Zagano

 God Talk with Medene and James: "Women Deacons, The Vatican, and Re-Reading Romans 16 with Dr. Phyllis Zagano" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qplXDOdAfU

 

Vatican Dispatch

Trump attacks Pope Leo again ahead of Marco Rubio’s Vatican visit

by Gerard O’Connell May 5, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation alongside U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House in Washington, June 21, 2025, following U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Credit: OSV News photo/Carlos Barria/Pool, Reuters

This article has been updated.

On the eve of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the Vatican on May 7—a visit  widely seen in Rome as an attempt to restore more tranquil relations with the White House—President Donald J. Trump publicly attacked Pope Leo, alleging that “he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people” and falsely claiming yet again that for the pontiff, “it’s O.K. for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

James Talarico confronts a hostile political climate with love.

Dominic Preziosi

May 5, 2026

Religion

Politics

Please email comments to letters@commonwealmagazine.org.

James Talarico speaks to supporters in Austin, Texas, March 3, 2026. (John Anderson/Alamy Live News)

A few months ago, a trusted source emailed me insisting I listen to Ezra Klein’s podcast interview with Texas Democratic senate candidate James Talarico. “I’ve never heard a politician speak so clearly, authentically, and movingly about his own faith and of the contribution that faith perspectives can bring to civic life,” he wrote. At the time I knew less about him than I did about his opponent, U.S. representative Jasmin Crockett, in the then-upcoming March 3 Democratic primary. Talarico would go on to beat Crockett, whose barbed and energetic attacks on Donald Trump and other Republicans had won her a wide following among Democratic voters distraught over their party’s lack of fight. To the extent I had thought about Talarico, he’d reminded me of Beto O’Rourke, whose failed campaigns for senate in 2018 and governor in 2022 (following an abandoned presidential bid in 2020) were lessons in dashed hopes: the value of being a media-anointed Democratic it-boy is limited in deep-red Texas. But Talarico, the son of a minister and a Presbyterian seminarian himself, has already separated himself from figures like O’Rourke. He’s that much talked-about but famously elusive creature: the Democrat who leads with his faith. 

A relatable pope: We sort of think we know Leo

 

News

A relatable pope: We sort of think we know Leo

Carol Zimmermann   ncr