President Trump says the pope should stay out of politics. “Border czar” Tom Homan and Vice President J.D. Vance say, effectively, that Church leaders should stick to fixing the Church, or as Vance says, “let the Church be the Church.” Trump publicly criticized Pope Leo XIV over the Iran crisis and took offense that Catholic leaders across the world answered in defense of the Holy Father, including Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Italian bishops, several British bishops, and a growing number of American prelates.

Let us get straight to the point. The pope has every right to speak on politics and public affairs, because politics concerns man and the common good, and every facet of those realities belongs under the judgment of God. Theology is the queen of the sciences because God is Lord over all things, and the vicar of Christ has every right to comment on those matters because Jesus Christ is Lord over all. The pope does not suddenly lose his voice when the subject turns from theology to politics. That kind of compartmentalization of the Church’s role is myopic and ignorant. Vatican II says the Church and the political community are distinct in their proper fields, yet it also says the Church brings “the light of its doctrine” to “all fields of human endeavor,” and that the Church must have freedom “to teach its social doctrine” and “to pass moral judgment” when public order or the salvation of souls requires it (Gaudium et Spes 76).

The Catechism says the same thing firmly. It teaches that every institution is shaped by some vision of man and his destiny, which means public life is never spiritually neutral, and it further states that the Church may pass moral judgments “even in matters related to politics” (CCC 2246) whenever fundamental rights or the salvation of souls are at stake. That is a standing mandate of Catholic doctrine. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church teaches that the Church’s social doctrine has “a duty to denounce” and that this includes “the sin of injustice and violence that in different ways moves through society and is embodied in it.” It also says the Church’s mission embraces man in “his community and social being” (82).

Many people ask why Pope Leo seems to comment on only American policy while saying less or nothing about Islamic slaughter of Christians, euthanasia in Canada and the West, or antisemitism. The answer is clear: he is speaking on those issues as well. He always has!

• In January, he
  • commented on religiously motivated violence in Bangladesh, the Sahel, Nigeria, Syria, and Mozambique;
  • warned about discrimination against Christians;
  • defended the dignity of migrants and prisoners; and
  • rejected abortion, rejected surrogacy, opposed euthanasia, and insisted that the right to life is the foundation of every other human right.
• In December, Leo reiterated the Church’s firm condemnation of antisemitism.
• In May, he also shared concern about Eastern Christians driven from their homelands by war and persecution.

The Church reads the signs of the times in light of the Gospel. That is part of its vocation in every age. A pope who keeps silent while rulers of influence push morally unfettered war or ideology would fail in his office. Leo has called for peace and dialogue and showed resistance to public stances that are affronts to revealed truth and nature. Whether a president likes that is a small issue. Whether the successor of Peter is doing his duty is the real issue.

The more serious issue for Catholics in America concerns Catholics who know better. J.D. Vance had this to say, too:

In the same way that it’s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology. . . .

If you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got ot be careful, you’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth, and that’s one of the things that I try to do, and it’s certainly something I would expect from the clergy.

A Catholic public figure who can cite Augustine’s City of God on the ordo amoris certainly knows that politics exists under moral law, and moral law is a purview of the Church, especially the pope. Catholics in the United States must say this with calmness and with backbone: we are Catholic Christians first, and our other vocations follow. Only after that are we American patriots—we have no partisan identity—and then we are Catholic Christians, again, last. Our faith bookends our existence, social or otherwise.

We love the United States because so much in its founding order appealed to natural law and biblical moral reason. Catholics therefore serve this nation best when we tell it the truth. The Church is never a chaplaincy for any administration.

Our task is larger than one social media post and larger than one bruised news cycle. The bishops who defended Leo were right to do so, because he was preaching a gospel of peace and the sanctity of human life from within his divinely entrusted office. As for the rest of us, if an act has dishonored the holy name or holy visage of Christ, then we should make reparation before God, and away from a digital audience. If we haven’t done that yet, then we’ve missed the point. This is how the Church has always answered vulgarity: with worship, penance, and a steadier witness than any age can manufacture.

So here is the exhortation. Catholics, grow the proper kind of backbone. Keep teaching. Keep reasoning. Keep praying. Keep fasting. Keep making reparations. Keep your devotion filial and intelligent. When it comes to the papacy, avoid blind cheerleading, but also avoid constant criticism. During the Francis papacy, we witnessed globally how both habits deform the soul and weaken the Body of Christ. Be discerning and hold to the mean.

Pray for Pope Leo XIV to have the exact wisdom for the exact words at the exact hour. Modern popes labor under a savage digital microscope that no pope historically has had to deal with, and Leo, too, is a fallen man in desperate need of grace. Hence, when he speaks rightly, even on matters of prudential judgment, the Catholic response is virtuous fidelity of children to their spiritual father.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7:14).