ByKevin Gallagher
Pope Leo XIV is making it impossible to reconcile MAGA politics with Catholic faith.
Within the US Catholic church, Leo’s interventions may decisively undercut those who have argued for a “seamless garment” of Catholic faith and MAGA politics. (Alberto Pizzoli / AFP via Getty Images)
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“Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.” As thousands of believers filled St Peter’s Square in the Vatican for the rites of Palm Sunday this year, Pope Leo XIV chose to include in his homily these words that God speaks at the beginning of the Book of Isaiah. In the context of his brief homily, it was the last of several Bible verses Leo chose to illustrate the idea of “Jesus, King of Peace.” But in the context of the Trump administration’s ongoing war on Iran, it was immediately understood as a direct rebuke to a prayer service led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon a few days earlier, in which he had besought the Almighty for “overwhelming violence.”
Leo may not have intended his words as a direct response to Hegseth — a pope hardly needs a special excuse to preach about peace at Easter time — but Leo did nothing to discourage that interpretation. A few days later, when asked about Donald Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization, Leo unequivocally rebuked such threats as “unacceptable,” and directly asked that Americans call their congresspeople to demand an end to hostilities.
This was not the first time Leo had chosen to venture into American politics in this first year of his papacy. He had previously made public comments against the mistreatment of immigrants and against the occupation of Minneapolis. But this time, the Trump administration’s response has been far more aggressive. President Trump made a rambling late-night post on his Truth Social network to announce that “Leo should get his act together as pope”; Vice President J. D. Vance chided the Supreme Pontiff to “be careful” about what he says; and a whole series of lesser officials and right-wing media personalities lined up to denounce the pope’s statements.
When asked about these attacks by the press, Leo stated, “I have no fear of the Trump administration,” and he has gone on to show himself uncowed. At a recent prayer meeting on his tour through several African countries, Leo returned again to the theme of his Palm Sunday homily — this time not quoting the Bible but speaking in his own words: “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
