What would Jesus do? Trump and Vance claim to know more about it than the pope.
Is the pope Catholic?
Apparently, that’s an actual question now, thanks to our vice president, who, like the president and the rest of his lickspittles, has a problem with Leo XIV calling for an end to war, cruelty, and violence.
The pontiff has really been cooking in recent weeks, urging us to “abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power,” which are “entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.” On Palm Sunday, he warned against invoking Jesus to justify war, and quoted Isaiah, in which God says, “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.” On Thursday, he spoke of “a handful of tyrants” who are ravaging the earth.
“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,” he said.
They’re pretty strong words, but such messages are pretty standard for a pontiff, and the pope hasn’t named any names. Still, Trump and Vance know he’s throwing shade directly at them. And they don’t like it one bit.
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The unhinged president, who, like his defense secretary, has repeatedly invoked God to justify his attacks on Iran, has called Leo “WEAK on crime, and terrible for foreign policy.” Trump followed up this nonsensical insult with blasphemy, posting an AI image depicting him as Jesus healing a sick man.
Vance, a recent and zealous convert to Catholicism, beclowned himself by questioning the expertise of the head of his church, literally the highest authority on earth when it comes to Catholic doctrine: “I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” the vice president said. This is akin to a kindergartner suggesting Einstein should be very, very careful when he talks about matters of physics.
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Vance and others have been countering Leo with the argument that the US-Israeli attack on Iran is a “just war.” That is a specific theological concept, and the attacks on Iran ain’t it. A war of choice, entered into rashly, is not a just war. Nor does one include attacking civilian infrastructure and threatening genocide. And a just war is certainly not celebrated with gusto by aggressors like Pete “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies” Hegseth.
Most absurdly, Vance also suggested “it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality.” Maybe Vance defines morality differently from the rest of us, but the pope is squarely in his own lane here. His denunciation of the cruelty in which Trumpists delight was certainly at the heart of the Catholicism I was raised in.
Indeed, the last week or two have reminded me exactly why I loved the church, to which I was devoted for 27 years. Sure, my upbringing — including 12 years of parochial school — was replete with all kinds of odd rituals and repressive edicts from on high. But at its heart, the faith tradition I was raised in was super woke, based on a steadfast belief in the essential humanity of all people.
In my post-Vatican II Catholic church, inequality and cruelty were affronts to God. The nuns made it clear that it was our job to fix those things — not just to show up to Mass every week, but to actually live in ways that make other people’s lives better. We knew we would fail over and over, but the point was in the trying.
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Jesus, we were taught, was a radical. He was crucified because his values — his rejection of economic and political hierarchies, his insistence on welcoming outcasts, on replacing all of the arcane rules with a simple, equalizing commandment to love one another — directly threatened those in power.
His was always an inherently political message. So yes, the words of Leo XIV are political, just as the pronouncements of every pope are political, if they’re doing it right.
Just so you know, there is a lot this lapsed Catholic dislikes about the Catholic church, including its retrograde positions on LGBTQ rights and its insistence on controlling women’s bodies. Those obsessions, and the clergy sex abuse coverups, drove me away.
But it gives me joy to see this pope stand up for basic decency, putting actual Catholic values up against the bloodthirsty proclamations of leaders who act like they’ve cornered the market on the God stuff.
The pope is clearly Catholic. Is JD Vance?
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