SA’s Cardinal Brislin slams the US president’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV, insisting the papacy is not political theatre.
The Catholic Church should never be a platform for political theatre. It would be convenient for political players across the world if it were. While the church does not seek quarrels with political leaders, neither can we remain silent when innocent people are being killed on immoral grounds, and when political players make bad decisions. Attacking the sanctity of the church and the papacy, and the deeper moral vision they represent, is also not acceptable and cannot be met with silence.
A social media post and verbal remarks by US President Donald Trump about Pope Leo XIV are a cause for great concern. President Trump claimed the Holy Father was “weak on crime”, “terrible for foreign policy”, and said he did not “want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon”. Trump posted that the pontiff was “a very liberal person” and should “stop catering to the radical left”.
Trump also suggested in the post that the Holy Father was elected pontiff “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J Trump”.
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be…