Pope Leo says his ancestors were both ‘slaves and slave owners’

Pope Leo XIV has delved into his family history, revealing his ancestry included both enslaved people and slave owners.

“I come from a family that my grandparents were immigrants,” the first American pontiff told NBC news in the Vatican Gardens of Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday. “On my mother’s side, we have people who were both slaves and slave owners.”

Leo spoke about his family’s historical links to the transatlantic slave trade on Wednesday in response to a reporter’s question about his American heritage.

Asked what he loves about his homeland, the pope also said he highly values the United States’ “sense of freedom, the sense of opportunity” and “of having invited for generations people from around the world to be part of America.”

The importance of welcoming new arrivals is a message the Chicago-born pope has repeatedly sent to the US, as he has criticized the “inhuman” treatment of immigrants during the Trump administration’s crackdown.

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Blakeman accuses Hochul of anti-Catholic bigotry over LBGTQ law that would force hospice nuns to violate their beliefs

By Carl Campanile
Published July 8, 2026, 5:08 p.m. ET


Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is accusing Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul of religious bigotry for enforcing a transgender rights law she approved that is forcing Catholic nuns who run a hospice program to choose between their beliefs or caring for indigent, terminally ill patients.

The controversy concerns the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in Westchester County who run Rosary Hill Home — a Catholic hospice for the poor.

The order filed a federal lawsuit accusing the state of violating their constitutional rights with a 2024 law that requires the facility to affirm patients’ gender identity in regard to pronouns, room assignments and restroom usage.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman accused Gov. Kathy Hochul of anti-Catholic bigotry over a state law that forces Catholic nuns to affirm patients gender identity at their hospice pogram.Dennis A. Clark for NY Post

A nun with the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne feeding a patient at Rosary Hill Home in Westchester County.Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne


The law bars nursing or long-term care facilities from discriminating against any resident based on the resident’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status.

But the Trump Justice Department recently intervened in the case on behalf of the Dominican Sisters, claiming New York is engaged in religious discrimination at the 42-bed hospice care facility.

“What Kathy Hochul is doing to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is an absolute disgrace. For over 120 years, these incredible women have done God’s work, providing unconditional love, comfort, and dignity to people in their final days,” Blakeman told The Post.

“They are saints walking among us, and they represent the absolute best of New York. Yet, Kathy Hochul is actually willing to shut them down, strip away their license, and throw terminal cancer patients out on the street—all to enforce her woke garbage.”

The Keys of This Blood

Píncaros da Glória Dec 31, 2025

Malachi Martin’s work explores the geopolitical competition between three primary forces—Western capitalism, Soviet communism, and the Roman Catholic Church—as they vie to establish a new world order. Central to this narrative is Pope John Paul II, whose unique background in Poland prepared him to engage as a sophisticated global competitor in this "millennium endgame." The text details how the Pontiff utilizes his moral authority and diplomatic reach to challenge both the materialism of the West and the totalitarianism of the East. Martin highlights the internal struggles within the Church, including the rise of Liberation Theology and a "superforce" of dissenters, which complicate the Pope’s mission. Ultimately, the source frames modern history as a transition from a world of sovereign nation-states to a unified, interdependent global structure. Through this lens, the author argues that the Pope’s actions are driven by a divine vision intended to steer humanity toward a spiritual rather than purely secular future.

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Bishop Burbidge calls for new immigration policy, criticizes Trump’s treatment of Pope Leo

By Hannah Hiester

Bishop Michael Burbidge (Photo by the Diocese of Arlington/X)


In a recent podcast episode, Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, decried President Donald Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV as “unfortunate and disheartening” and offered his support to three cardinals who recently discussed immigration and politics with CBS News, saying he agreed with many of their points.

Bishop Burbidge began the episode of his podcast, “Walk Humbly,” by discussing the April 12 CBS News interview, which featured Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey. As Zeale News previously reported, the cardinals addressed the Trump administration's war in Iran and immigration enforcement and the relationship between Catholicism and politics.

Bishop Burbidge emphasized that the cardinals’ views do not represent those of all U.S. bishops, but he said that he agreed with several of the points made during the interview, especially the cardinals’ comment that the U.S. should adopt “a comprehensive approach to immigration.”

“It’s not good, it’s really quite wrong, that American immigration policy changes so dramatically with elections,” he said. “As the Church teaches, and we say this often on the podcast, every nation has the right to regulate its borders and enforce just immigration policy. At the same time, every migrant has a duty and obligation to respect the laws of the nation and always contribute positively to society. And for many, many years American immigration policy has been inconsistent.”

Bishop Burbidge said that the Church calls political leaders to shape immigration policy around human dignity and the common good, which he said “includes upholding justice and a rule of law.” Human dignity and the common good are not opposed to each other, he said, adding that he believes America, as a great nation, can discover a way to enforce immigration law that harmonizes both aspects.

The bishop also addressed Pope Leo’s calls for peace amid the U.S.-Iran conflict, saying that while Church doctrine recognizes “the right and duty of nations” to fight just wars, the Church “always promotes and pursues justice and peace.”

“Conflict should always be avoided wherever and whenever possible through tireless and relentless dialogue and negotiations,” he later added. “So Pope Leo has been an incredible witness to the Gospel, promoting peace since the war broke out.”

Finally, Bishop Burbidge discussed Trump’s social media posts and comments that criticized Pope Leo, saying that there was “no doubt” that the posts “crossed a line.”

“The Pope is not a politician. He was not speaking as a politician. He’s not a political rival,” the bishop said. “The Holy Father is the Vicar of Christ, called by his office to preach the Gospel and to speak moral truth to the entire world. So just like every father — every father strives for peace in his family and for his children — the Holy Father wants peace in the world. He wants peace for all of us and the glory of God.”

Bishop Burbidge emphasized that the Church seeks to inspire and influence political life since “politics involves applying principles and moral law … to the issues of our day.”

“So we will always, as the Holy Father has done so beautifully, call civil leaders to recognize what scripture tells us, that the ultimate authority comes from God,” he continued, later adding, “We’re not here to obey man; we’re here to obey God.”

Source 

Trump Lambasts ‘Weak’ Leo XIV, Urges Him To ‘Focus On Being A Great Pope, Not A Politician’

Screenshot/X/@RapidResponse47

Thomas Wong

Weekend editor

April 13, 202612:42 AM ET

President Donald Trump fired off his most public and intense criticism of Pope Leo XIV in a lengthy Sunday night post to Truth Social and also in remarks to journalists, calling the spiritual head of the Catholic Church “weak” and “terrible” on key issues.

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart,” Trump began his criticism on social media.

“I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!” the president continued, referring to the pontiff’s older brother Louis Prevost, a Trump supporter living in Florida. “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country.”

“And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History,” he added.

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Pentagon Threatened Pope After He Criticized Trump?

It was so bad that Pope Leo changed his plans to travel to the U.S.

Tiziana FABI/AFP/Getty Images

Relations between the United States and the Catholic Church have not been the same since January, when senior U.S. defense officials shared an abrasive message with a Vatican official.

Days after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door Pentagon meeting for a bitter lecture.

“The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the fourteenth century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission, ordering an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his downfall and subsequent death and forcing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon, a region inside France.

The Trump administration had taken issue with the pope’s critique of its militaristic proclivities. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Pentagon officials were particularly aggrieved by portions of Leo’s January 9 speech in which the pope argued that “a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force,” and that “war is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading.”

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Pope Leo Pushes Back Against Trump

The pontiff takes a quiet but firm stance against the former president's policies.

Mar. 21, 2026 at 12:54am


In a surprising move, Pope Leo has been quietly but firmly pushing back against the policies and rhetoric of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The pontiff has used his moral authority and global platform to criticize Trump's divisive approach to immigration, his skepticism of climate change, and his antagonistic relationship with traditional U.S. allies.

Why it matters

As a highly influential global leader, Pope Leo's stance against Trump's policies carries significant weight, especially among Catholics and other religious communities. This clash between the spiritual and political realms highlights the Pope's willingness to take a principled stand on issues he deems morally important, even when it means challenging a former U.S. president.

The details

Pope Leo has used various channels to voice his disagreement with Trump, including speeches, interviews, and direct communications with the White House. While avoiding direct personal attacks, the Pope has criticized Trump's hardline immigration policies, his dismissal of climate change, and his antagonistic approach to long-standing U.S. alliances. This quiet but firm pushback has created tension between the Vatican and the former administration.

• Pope Leo was elected as the 267th Pope in 2020.
• Trump served as the 45th President of the United States from 2017 to 2021.

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 Feb 6, 2026

Bishop Kevin Kenney was born in Minneapolis and has ministered to Latino communities there for years. Now an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, he speaks to America Magazine about the realities facing Latino Catholics on the ground and what the Catholic Church is doing to support them.

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Vice President Vance presents a Christian vision of politics

U.S. Vice President JD Vance. | Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

By Amira Abuzeid

CNA Staff, Dec 23, 2025 / 14:27 pm

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, America’s second Catholic vice president, laid out a distinctly Christian vision for American politics in a speech this week, declaring that “the only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been and, by the grace of God, we always will be a Christian nation.”

Speaking to more than 30,000 young conservatives at Turning Point USA’s AmFest 2025 some three months after the death of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, Vance called for a politics rooted in a Christian faith that honors the family, protects the weak, and rejects what he described as a decades-long “war” on Christianity in public life.

The Christian faith has provided a “shared moral language” since the nation’s founding, the Yale-trained lawyer argued, which led to “our understanding of natural law and rights, our sense of duty to one’s neighbor, the conviction that the strong must protect the weak, and the belief in individual conscience.”

“Christianity is America’s creed,” the vice president said to loud cheers, while acknowledging that not everyone needs to be a Christian and “we must respect each individual’s pathway” to God. Even so, he said, “even our famously American idea of religious liberty is a Christian concept.”

Vance described how, over the past several decades, “freedom of religion transformed into freedom from religion” as a result of the cultural assault on Christian faith from those on “the left” who have “labored to push Christianity out of national life. They’ve kicked it out of the schools, out of the workplace, out of the fundamental parts of the public square.”