Politics and Pontiffs by Patrick Carolan

Earlier this month, the White House posted an image on X of President Donald Trump dressed as the pope. This came just after the funeral of Pope Francis and ahead of the gathering of cardinals to choose a new leader of the church. Just a few days before, Trump said he would “like to be pope.” One of his closest allies, Senator Lindsey Graham, wrote: “I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!”

For Catholics, the conclave and the election of a new pope is a profoundly sacred and spiritual undertaking. It is a symbol of faith and unity within the church. For Trump to make a mockery of the office of the papacy shows a complete lack of understanding and a profound disrespect for Catholics and their sacred traditions. When Trump was questioned about the picture, his response was equally disrespectful: he said that most Catholics were fine with it, even if the “fake news media” was not. He went on to claim that “the Catholics loved it.”

I have spent a great deal of time working in the Catholic world. I do not know a single Catholic who thought the post and Trump’s comments were appropriate. Even many of my Catholic friends who voted for Trump were appalled.

What most Catholics do not realize is that the first conclave didn’t happen until 1274. From the time of Constantine, Anthony Rosselli writes, “it had been common for emperors, kings, and princes to get involved in the election of popes.” Constantine’s influence in selecting the pope helped set a pattern for political and world leaders for the next 900 years or so. Rosselli explains, “In some cases, if a pope had been selected by the clergy, kings reserved the right to veto the selection.” It was not until 1268 that the process we now know as the conclave was established for the purpose of removing outside political leaders from trying to influence the selection of a new pope.

It is ironic that Trump would denigrate one of our church’s most sacred offices. The Catholic vote was largely responsible for his election. An NBC News exit poll shows that Catholics preferred Trump over Kamala Harris by a whopping 20 percent—59 percent for Trump versus 39 percent for Harris. Among white Catholics, the margin was 63 percent to 35 percent.

What Czech priest Fr. Thomas Halík has called Trump’s “chaotic and immature personality” appears to be the norm. In the past he has publicly made fun of disabled people, insulted world leaders, and acted like a spoiled child by calling people names. But what is more disconcerting is the lack of response from the US church condemning his actions. While several bishops and Catholic leaders have spoken out, at the time of this writing the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has not issued an official statement condemning and demanding an apology for this mockery. In a strongly worded statement, Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, did insist that Trump should apologize, calling the image “deeply offensive to Catholics especially during this sacred time that we are still mourning the death of Pope Francis and praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the election of our new Pope.”

The two Catholic leaders who are probably closest to Trump, Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron, issued what could be described as weak apologetic statements. Both were recently appointed by Trump to serve on the White House religious liberty commission. When asked if he was offended by the post, Dolan replied, “Well, you know, it wasn’t good.” Barron’s response was equally obtuse. In an interview with EWTN’s Colm Flynn, he argued that the image was “a bad joke,” stating, “I don’t think at all it represents some disdain for the Catholic Church, or some attack on the Catholic Church.”

Contrast this with Barron’s outrage over the controversy of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics, which he described as a “gross mockery” of Christianity. “I think, folks, what’s interesting here is this deeply secularist postmodern society knows who its enemy is. They’re naming it. And we should believe them,” he said at the time. For his part, Dolan recently said that “President Trump takes his Christianity seriously.” I am not sure what the cardinal’s definition of “taking your Christianity seriously” is. Trump has been convicted 34 times making payments to suppress the sordid details of an affair with a porn star. He has been married three times and allegedly had affairs with other women each time. He was convicted in a civil court for sexually abusing and defaming a woman. I am not sure what Dolan learned in seminary about “taking your Christianity seriously,” but I am pretty sure it is not this.

During the last campaign, political organizations like CatholicVote and Catholics for Catholics spent a lot of time, energy, and millions of dollars to successfully convince Catholics that Harris and Democratic Party were anti-Catholic. But the organizations’ silence was deafening when Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene recently said that Catholic bishops are “controlled by Satan.” It is not the first time that Greene has made such a statement. In 2022, she suggested that the church’s charitable efforts to help migrants were a sign of Satan “controlling” the church. These organizations also failed to respond when congressman Jim Jordan last year accused Catholic religious sisters of “declar[ing] war on the American way of life.” As I wrote at the time:

The Republicans’ anti-Catholic bias is on full display when they refer to Catholic nuns who have dedicated their lives to serving the poor, feeding the hungry, and caring for creation as a “woke cartel” and “a ‘climate cartel’ of left-wing environmental activists.” . . . These faith communities, including Catholic nuns and priests, certainly have not, as the Judiciary Committee’s summary document claims, “declared war on the American way of life.”

The sin most often mentioned in the Bible is the sin of hypocrisy. It is mentioned more than 40 times. Jesus himself talks about the sin of hypocrisy more than any other. In Matthew 23, he goes into great detail defining and warning about hypocrites. Perhaps some of our current church and political leaders should revisit these sections of Scripture with a more nuanced and critical eye. ♦

Patrick Carolan is a Catholic activist, organizer, and writer. He served as the Executive director of the Franciscan Action Network for ten years; he co-founded the Global Catholic Climate Movement and Catholics Vote Common Good. His writing and activism are centered on his understanding and belief through Franciscan spirituality of the connectedness of all creation and God.