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Once more we take up religion and politics, this time a conversation about President Donald Trump's attacks on Pope Leo XIV—the first successor of St. Peter from the United States—mostly, though not only, over the pope's pleas for peace as Trump rages war against Iran. Why is the incredibly unpopular Trump going after the beloved pontiff? Why does Trump's Catholic vice president, J.D. Vance, argue that Leo should stay out of politics and stick to morality, as if politics was not irreducibly a moral enterprise? Who is Pope Leo, and what seem to be his priorities for his papacy? How to make sense over the arguments about just-war theory that Leo's various statements about war and peace—notably, that God does not hear the prayers of those who wage war—have generated? We answer all these questions, and more!

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Sources:

"Rerum Novarum: Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor," May 15, 1891

"Reflection of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the Prayer Vigil for Peace," April 11, 2026

"U.S. Bishops’ Chairman on Doctrine Issues Clarification on Just War Theory," April 15, 2026

Chris Cameron, "Vance Says Pope Leo Should Stay Out of U.S. Affairs," New York Times, April 13, 2026

Matthew Sitman, "Pope Francis and Civil Unions: We Need Clarity, Not a Media Blackout," Commonweal, Oct 27, 2020

Jason Horowitz & Natalie Kitroeff, "Pope Francis’ Views on Same-Sex Civil Unions Were Cut From a 2019 Vatican Interview," New York Times, Oct 22, 2020

Gerald W. Schlabach, "Just War? Enough Already," Commonweal, May 31, 2017