Pope Leo’s critique of Trump ends honeymoon with conservative Catholics

VATICAN CITY – Pope Leo XIV initially impressed conservative Catholics after his election in May as he embraced traditions shunned by his predecessor Pope Francis and steered clear of hot button social issues that divided the 1.4 billion-member Church.

But his honeymoon with conservatives appears over after he unexpectedly took aim at

US President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies

, questioning whether they were in line with the Church’s pro-life teachings.

“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” Pope Leo, the first US pope, told reporters on Sept 30.

Some critics, who had praised the Pope for his early reserve, expressed shock that Pope Leo criticised the current champion of global conservatives. 

Former Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland, a fierce Pope Francis critic, who was relieved from duty by the late Pope but has praised Pope Leo, criticised the new Pope on social media for causing “much confusion... regarding the sanctity of human life and the moral clarity of the Church’s teaching”.

“So tired of papal interviews. He should return to his previous silence,” opined the Rorate Caeli blog, which had previously criticised Pope Francis and praised Pope Leo.

The Trump administration, which was sharply critical of Pope Francis but has rarely commented about Pope Leo, also pushed back.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she rejected the characterisation of inhumane treatment of immigrants.

Pope likely undeterred by criticism

Vatican officials and papal associates said Pope Leo cares especially deeply about the treatment of immigrants and is unlikely to be deterred by criticism. 

But it could detract from his mission, expressed during his inaugural papal mass, to work for unity across a global Church that has become more divided and polarised in recent decades.

While the naturally cautious Pope Leo will look to avoid repeated clashes with conservatives that could harden opposition to his agenda, he will not renounce his own set of values. 

“Is he going to ruffle the feathers of American conservatives at some points? Yes,” said Ms Elise Allen, author of a biography of Pope Leo for Penguin Peru and the only journalist to interview the Pope since his election.

“They shouldn’t be surprised that he does that,” she told Reuters.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior adviser to both Pope Francis and Pope Leo, said the new Pope was following an instruction given by St Paul, a 1st century leader of Christianity: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season.”

The cardinal told Reuters: “(Pope Leo) encourages and challenges each local Church and each Christian, faced with complex and urgent issues, to live the Gospel.”

Pope Leo was a relative unknown on the global stage

before his election in May

. He spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru, where Ms Allen said he developed a desire to care for immigrants and speak up for social causes.

“He understands the priority of the abortion issue, but he’s not going to be somebody that says that’s far more important than immigration,” she said.

Pope Francis drew conservative Catholic ire throughout his 12-year papacy. He spurned much of the pomp of papacy, repeatedly clamped down on the traditional Latin Mass, and allowed priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis.

Leo distinct from Francis

Pope Leo earned conservative praise immediately in the hours after his election by wearing a traditional red papal garment called a mozzetta, which Pope Francis never wore, in his first public appearance.

Pope Leo has since held separate private meetings with US Cardinal Raymond Burke and Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, two prominent Francis critics who lost Vatican jobs under the late Pope.

Cardinal Burke once famously compared the Church under Pope Francis to “a ship without a rudder”.

Pope Leo also let Cardinal Burke celebrate a Latin Mass in St Peter’s Basilica later in October, something Pope Francis had refused.

The new Pope also attracted some conservative criticism early in September for giving a high-profile private audience to a prominent US priest who ministers to LGBT Catholics.

Mr David Gibson, a US academic who follows the papacy, said conservative Catholics had grasped at Pope Leo’s attempts to foster unity as if he were endorsing their entire agenda.

“Leo was never going to do that,” Mr Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Centre on Religion and Culture, told Reuters.

“The two popes are different men, but both men of tradition and of the centre.” REUTERS