Opinion - Pope Leo XIV and President Trump are on a collision course
I was raised as a Catholic and went to parochial elementary and high schools. Some of my high school classmates, including my best friend, went to Villanova University, the alma mater of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV. But I then attended Syracuse University, an institution founded by Methodists and became distant from my church.
I am now heartened that the new pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, has followed the lead of his predecessor, Pope Francis, and taken progressive positions on economic justice and immigration fairness. That's more than I can say for President Trump.
Robert Francis Prevost was elected pope by the College of Cardinals last week. He is an American who served as a missionary in Peru for two decades and was a member of the Vatican hierarchy and Pope Francis' inner circle. He punched lots of tickets on his way up to the papacy much like Americans who get elected president.
I have practiced both, and there are many similarities between the Catholic Church and American politics.
America's equivalent to the College of Cardinals is the collection of the subcommittee chairs on the Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives. They are literally referred to as 'cardinals' on Capitol Hill because they are as powerful and mysterious as their counterparts in the Vatican.
Our cardinals are wrestling to make Trump's draconian budget cuts for working families into law.
The workings of the Vatican's College of Cardinals are nearly as complex and confusing as the Electoral College that selects our president. Both institutions have excluded women from positions of power, now that the Vatican has broken with tradition and anointed an American with Black Creole blood as the Holy Father, there's no reason on heaven or on earth that should prevent the U.S. from electing a woman as chief executive, or for the Holy See to elevate women into the priesthood. Stranger things have happened. Trump has been elected twice, both times against female opponents.
Trump welcomed the election of the new Holy Father and said he wants to meet him. I would love to be a fly on the wall if they do meet. The relationship between the new prelate and the second-term president is not destined to end well.
The new pontiff believes the church is a tent big enough for everyone. Trump's acolytes take the opposing view that his movement is only big enough for true believers. Trump strategist Steve Bannon (no relation) predicted that there would be friction between the two leaders.
Shortly after Pope Francis' death, Trump insulted Catholics when he posted a picture of himself dressed as Pope. Prevost has criticized the president and Vice President JD Vance in the past and those disagreements are likely to intensify now that Leo is pontiff. But American Catholics solidly supported Trump last November over Kamala Harris by a margin of 59 percent to 39 percent. Ideologically, they are more sympathetic toward their president than they are toward their pope.
There are distinct areas of disagreement between the Vatican and MAGA Nation, even though the members of both groups wear red hats. The issues in dispute are Trump's extremist immigration policies and the pontiff's advocacy of economic justice.
Immigration is irritant No. 1. Pope Leo spent much of his life working as a missionary in Latin America. His predecessor, the Argentinian Pope Francis, was very hostile to the president's abusive treatment of refugees from Central and South America. Although Trump has taken severe steps against Hispanic and Arab immigrants and thrown some of them into a prison in El Salvador, he has encouraged White South African immigrants to enter the U.S. as refugees.
In the wake of Trump's 2016 victory, Prevost reposted a homily by the archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez that criticized Trump anti-immigrant policies and stated, 'America is better than this.' I would like to think it is.
Economic justice is also a point of contention.
MAGA activist Lisa Loomer, the power behind the Trump throne posted an angry response to the elevation of Pope Leo XIV. She described him as 'just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican.' The Gospel of St. Matthew is still the word of God in the Vatican but an anathema in the White House. In Matthew, the poor are the salt of the earth. In MAGA World, they are the scum of the earth.
The new pope took the name Leo to honor his predecessor Leo XIII who was pontiff between 1873-1903 and fought to modernize the church. Trump wants to drag the world backwards in time. Leo was the 'Workers' Pope' whose groundbreaking papal encyclical, Rerum Novarum, championed social justice and workers' rights. The relationship between the second-term billionaires' president and the new workers' pope is a cocktail for contention.
The dividing line between Leo XIV and Trump on economics and immigration is in the meaning of the word 'woke.' Loomer accused the new pontiff of being 'woke,' which is a mortal sin in MAGA World.
I come from a family of devout Catholics and ardent Democrats. I fervently believe both groups should fight for the same goal — social justice — which means being woke.
Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications Research which polls for Democrats, labor unions and progressive issue groups. He hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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