When it comes to President Donald Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV, some Catholics are having nun of it.
On Sunday, CNN correspondent Gloria Pazmino went to Mass and spoke to Catholics leaving church about Trump railing against the pontiff in a lengthy social media post on April 12, in which the president said Leo was “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
Trump’s fiery post was in response to Leo condemning his Truth Social threat earlier this month that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran didn’t agree to a ceasefire. The pope did not mention Trump by name, but referred to his “threat against the entire people of Iran” as “truly unacceptable.”
One Catholic woman who spoke to CNN felt Trump’s personal attacks on the pontiff could be summed up in two words: “colossally stupid.”
“I don’t think it helps the president at all. I think it’s colossally stupid,” Anita Bauman of Pennsylvania told Pazmino. “And I say that as a Catholic and as a person who voted for Trump. But I think that it’s just not the battle to pick.”
Bauman said there are better ways for Trump to handle the situation.
“I would rather see [Trump] try to come to some accord with the Holy Father and with the church’s position,” Bauman continued. “You know, I do think that things needed to be done in Iran.”
Another woman named Lola Reese told CNN that she likes the president “a lot,” but added that she’d prefer to see Trump “back off and kind of calm down” his “streak of a little meanness here and there.”
Steve Gordon, the third Catholic Pazmino spoke to, said he understood both sides of the feud — although he declined to say whom he agrees with more. He did, however, add that he believes “you have to be careful about how you put out that message.”
On Saturday, Leo told reporters aboard the papal plane that it was “not in my interest at all” to debate Trump about Iran. He added that his recent remarks denouncing a “handful of tyrants” destroying the world were written in advance of Trump’s attacks, and meant to reflect a broader Gospel message of peace.
