White House dodges question on Pope Leo XIV’s Donald Trump criticism | World | News
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to answer a question about Pope Leo XIV’s previous criticism of Donald Trump.
Elected on Thursday, the new pope appeared to criticise US leadership, but Leavitt dodged questions on the subject, saying Trump is “very proud to have an American pope” and “it’s a great thing for the United States of America and for the world”.
During a White House press briefing, one reporter asked: “Before Pope Leo became Pope Leo, there were some critical comments that he made about President Trump and about Vice President Vance on his X account, does the White House have any reaction to those comments?”
Leavitt replied: “The president made his reaction to Pope Leo’s announcement yesterday very clear: he is very proud to have an American pope. I think it was a surprise to everyone, I saw the news media was surprised to report on that yesterday but it’s a great thing for the United States of America and the world and we are praying for him.”
Pope Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, is the first to hail from the United States and was chosen as head of the Catholic Church after achieving a two-thirds majority among cardinals in the secretive conclave this week.
As a cardinal, Prevost criticised Trump administration policies and statements from vice president JD Vance, saying on one occasion: “JD Vance is wrong.” The February post came days after Vance said it was a Christian belief “that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world”. He had been talking about critiques of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
In opposition to Vance, then-Cardinal Prevost shared an article from a Catholic publication with the headline: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” Ten days later, the new pontiff shared another piece from a Jesuit publication, with the heading: “Pope Francis’ letter, JD Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration.”
“Ordo amoris” is a historic Catholic belief which translates to “order of love”, referenced by the vice president in defence of his position against online criticism. He added: “The idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense.”
Before his first February post, Leo’s X account had been inactive since July 2023.
After Leo was chosen to lead more than a billion Catholics across the world on Thursday, Vance posted a message of congratulations in X, saying: “I’m sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church. May God bless him!”
Trump called Leo’s election “such an honour for our country,” but came under criticism recently for posting an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself dressed as pope in the midst of the mourning period for the late Pope Francis. Former Italian premier Romano Prodi denounced the post as indecent political interference in matters of faith.
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