In 1960, many Americans worried that if John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, was elected president, our national motto would go from “In God we trust” to “In the pope, we hope.” Millions feared that the world’s most important religious leader would hold sway over the world’s most powerful man.
No one worries about that today. And not just because Donald Trump is not Catholic; rather, because he goes out of his way to criticize the pope as if the pontiff were just another political opponent. Most recently, after Pope Leo XIV condemned the war in Iran, President Trump responded on social media that the Vicar of Christ is “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” The administration went on to pull millions in aid from Catholic Charities, which supports migrant children. It justified the decision by claiming that the number of children in need is “significantly lower” than it was under the Biden administration.
In an era of rank partisanship and binary ideological choices in America, this might seem to put traditional Catholics—like me—in a bind. Am I Team USA or Team Vatican?
