Much has been made – far too much in my estimation – about the tweets formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost and now Pope Leo XIV shared about President Donald Trump and Vice-President J. D. Vance.

As everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows by now, only four days after being elected the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, the press, both liberal and conservative, are reporting non-stop the fact that Pope Leo XIV has a history of criticizing Trump’s immigration policy, mostly via sharing tweets written by others. He also shared a tweet from the National Catholic Reporter that read: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” Because of this, and also for the ridiculous reason that the new pope failed or chose not to speak in English during his remarks from the loggia at St. Peter’s Basilica immediately after his election, some of Trump’s supporters are decrying Pope Leo as a woke liberal. I have already read on internet comboxes that Pope Leo is a Marxist, a communist, a socialist, and a leftists. Ooh-boy!

I don’t know who Tom Williams is, so I don’t know his political sympathies, but he linked on X to an article by The Daily Beast entitled “Cardinals Humiliate MAGA With ‘Social Justice Warrior’ Pope Leo XIV.” The Daily Beast, trust them or not at your own discretion, writes that a right-wing campaign to influence the cardinal electors of the conclave was organized by MAGA-supporting Catholic groups like the Papal Foundation, the NAPA Institute, and Catholic Vote to encourage the cardinals to elect a pope with different priorities than Pope Francis. Wining and dining with $100 bottles of wine, along with promises of billion-dollar donations, were made in the effort to pull the strings of the conclave. Whether it’s true or not, it clearly didn’t work. In any case, it’s absurd for The Daily Beast to claim that the reason the cardinals elected Cardinal Robert Prevost the new pope is because they wanted to humiliate MAGA, or anyone else.

The accusation that Pope Leo XIV is a Trump-bashing woke liberal is all based on his sharing of fewer than half a dozen tweets since 2017 expressing opposition to Trump’s immigration policy, and the one shared tweet disagreeing with Vance’s take on ordo amoris, the theory that we have a priority responsibility to love those closest to us, then spreading that love out to larger communities based on familial, community, national, or global ties. Oh, and Pope Leo shared a tweet by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) calling for greater gun control after the Las Vegas shooting that killed 60 people, but Trump himself banned bump-stocks in response to the massacre, so I don’t think that one counts. So, it seems that if you disagree with Trump on one issue, you are a Trump-bashing woke liberal. Not to mention a communist, socialist, leftist, Marxist. The irony is, this is exactly what the MAGA people accuse the Democrats of – demanding 100% agreement on all issues, or you’re just not a true believer and merit being cancelled. You could be all in line with the Dems, but if you dare step out of line on the issue of, say, abortion or transgenderism, then you’re scum who doesn’t merit the grace of my eye contact. Apparently now, the Republicans, or at least the MAGA variety, are all in on this strategy, as well. I suppose they’ll try to cancel Pope Leo XIV. I wonder what that would look like.

Is the pope Catholic? Of course, he is! As such, we should expect him to take positions that are going to oppose Trump’s policies on some matters, especially because some of Trump’s policies are contrary to the principle of treating all others with the dignity they merit as being made in the image and likeness of God. One of those issues is immigration. The Church teaches that all immigrants must be treated with respect and dignity, even if here illegally. That means we can’t just grab them our of their homes, their churches, their schools, or even their hospital beds and put them on a plane to wherever without due process. The Supreme Court has ruled that even illegal immigrants have due process rights. No one believes that cartel members, members of criminal organized gangs, or violent criminals deserve much in consideration of due process, except that they go through the process and get deported immediately. So far, Trump has mostly focused on the criminal element. But his stated plan is to deport anyone who entered the country illegally under President Biden’s four years, without much of a thought toward due process. That’s unconscionable, and no one should expect the pope in Rome to be in favor of that, regardless of who he is. Trump also cannot expect much support from Pope Leo on the issue of in-vitro fertalization, a process that removes human dignity from the creation of new life and necessarily involves the creation and destruction of embryos on a massive scale. How could the pope support such a thing? Does that mean he’s a Trump-bashing woke liberal? No. It means he’s Catholic.

On the other hand, I suspect Trump will enjoy considerable support from Pope Leo on the questions of abortion, gender ideology, school choice, religious freedom, condemnation of anti-Semitism, and efforts in which Trump has engaged in the pursuit of peace in Ukraine/Russia, Pakistan/India, and Israel/Hamas.

Americans are too often convinced that we are the center of the world, and that all decisions made in other countries or institutions have something to do with us, or are intended as a rebuke or a “good on ya!” about some aspect of U. S. politics. One combox idiot actually wrote that hatred for Trump was the motivation behind the conclave electing Pope Leo, as if that’s really what the cardinals had in mind when they met, prayed, discerned, discussed, and finally voted for the next pope: “How can we best screw Trump?” Trump! Trump! Trump! It’s all about Trump!

As Barney Fife would say, “Stay calm, people!” Pope Leo is not a carbon copy of Pope Francis. He will be his own man. Neither do I believe he is overly focused on how his words and actions, how he teaches and governs the Church, will impact or be impacted by what Trump is saying or doing. There will be issues on which they agree and issues on which they disagree. But the overarching concern of Pope Leo, as it was with Pope Francis, and Pope Benedict, and Pope John Paul before them, is how can our actions and preaching best reflect and fulfill the Church’s mission of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the people of this world. Pope Leo, a former missionary, has already challenged Catholics to renew our commitment to be a missionary Church. Let’s take up that challenge.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.