Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB,) issued a pointed defense of Pope Leo XIV on Sunday evening after President Donald Trump published a blistering Truth Social post attacking the Holy Father as “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.”
The statement was posted by the USCCB on April 12 under the headline, “Archbishop Coakley’s Response to President Trump’s Social Media Post on Pope Leo XIV.”
Trump’s lengthy social media broadside came after Pope Leo renewed his criticism of war, including recent U.S. policy toward Iran, and after earlier papal criticism of the administration’s approach to immigration.
Trump attacked the Pope late Sunday, accusing him of being “weak on Crime,” “terrible for Foreign Policy,” and “weak on nuclear weapons,” while also claiming Leo had been elevated to the papacy in part because he is American.
“I am disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father. Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls,” Archbishop Coakley said in the brief statement.
In his extensive Truth Social post, Trump wrote that “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."
In recent days, Pope Leo has condemned threats against civilian populations, and warned against what he described as a “delusion of omnipotence” fueling war during a prayer for peace.
Archbishop Coakley’s fast response to Trump made clear that the Pope is not a partisan actor competing in an American political feud or a Trump political opponent, but the successor of Peter, and should not be seen as though he were another combatant in the current political debate.