Catholics oppose Donald Trump's hideosuly inappropriate and unjustified criticism about His Holiness Pope Leo XIV

Echo opinion shared on social media by Father Kyle Doustou, a priest serving in the Diocese of Portland Maine.

I am grieved by the disrespect shown by Donald Trump, President of the United States to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV. 

Both his words on social media and to the press were appallingly inappropriate, personal, and vindictive. It was entirely unbecoming, unstatesmanlike and beneath the dignity of his office.

But I am even more grieved by how quickly many, including Catholics, have joined in this show of disrespect, echoing the sentiments of the President and dismissing the Holy Father’s call for peace as “liberal” or “globalist,” as though it were just another political opinion to be weighed and discarded. None of us is privy to the intelligence briefings, deliberation, or conversations Leo XIV has had; we are armchair consumers of media, and think we know way more than we actually do. The truth is, we cannot even begin to imagine what the Pope knows that we don't or the weight on his shoulders. And yet the judgment against him, by members of his own flock even, is immediate and absolute. This is a travesty.
The Pope is not a politician, this is true. He is the father of princes, not just another man among men or world leader among others. He is Christ's Vicar on earth, our pastor and shepherd, who has been entrusted with the awesome heavy task of applying the moral vision of the Gospel to the world. His mandate to do this comes from Jesus Christ. The world may not care about what he says, although it should. But Catholics must.

Now of course this doesn't mean every statement of the Pope is beyond discussion. But it does mean that our first instinct should *not* be reflexive dismissal, especially when his words challenge our assumptions or unsettle our political loyalties.

If we receive the words and admonitions of the Pope with respect and filial devotion only when he aligns with our politics, we have veered far from the path of good and holy discernment. For our part as Catholics, we must receive the Holy Father with docility, pray for him, and ask the Lord for the humility to be taught. And, at the very least, not join in the smears leveled against him.

I don't get involved in politics. I'm not informed enough and it's not really my place. But if you come after my Pope...all bets are off.
So, let us pray for Holy Leo, our Pope. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

O God, shepherd and ruler of all the faithful,
look favorably on Your servant Leo XIV, whom You have set at the head of Your Church as her shepherd; grant, we pray, that by word and example he may be of service to those over whom he presides so that, together with the flock entrusted to his care, he may come to everlasting life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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