The Feud Between President Trump and Pope Leo

I choose not to express political opinions on this forum, but this has been everywhere in the news the past couple days...

President Trump has openly condemned the head of the Roman Catholic Church after Pope Leo XIV criticized the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran. Pope Leo reiterated calls for peace after President Donald Trump criticized him as weak on crime and said he "caters to the radical left" amid disagreements over the Iran war (listen here). Trump separately drew bipartisan backlash for a now-deleted Truth Social post appearing to depict Trump as a Jesus-like figure (see here). He said he thought the image depicted him as a doctor.

As I previously stated I will refrain from comment on this disagreement, but this did lead to thoughts about whether the Christian Church (not just Roman Catholic) is liberal or conservative. I believe the issue is complex with no easy answer and the confirmation bias we discussed yesterday has  a lot to do with the answer.

 A person’s perspective of the Church is usually shaped and determined by how they identify themselves politically and ideologically. A conservative will view the Church through a conservative lens and a liberal will view the Church through a liberal one. 

• The Church is conservative because it opposes abortion and values the lives of the unborn. The Church also believes in personal responsibility, which is a conservative value. The Church believes in the existence of objective truth and rejects the notion of relativism.
• The Church is liberal because it advocates for the poor, the oppressed, the immigrant, and the worker. The Church believes in personal freedom from things such as slavery and coercion. The Church teaches us to love our neighbor.

The problem with seeing the Church through an ideological lens, or any type of lens for that matter, is that some aspects of her teaching will be overemphasized while other aspects are ignored. A conservative might focus more on the Church’s teaching against abortion and contraception while ignoring her teaching on collective responsibility to provide justice for the poor and needy or her teaching regarding the fundamental option for the poor. A liberal might focus more on the Church’s teaching to care for the poor while ignoring the Church’s teaching on abortion.

Fundamentally the real truth is this:  The fact is that the teaching of the Church does not fit perfectly within any worldly ideology, whether conservative or liberal, left wing or right wing, capitalist or socialist, or any other artificial category. The teaching of the Church cannot be confined to any limited set of merely human ideals.  

Ideology is one of the largest contributing factors to fear, disunity, division, public unrest, distrust, hatred, and lack of genuine dialogue. According to the New Oxford Dictionary, the definition of “ideology” is “a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy – the ideas and manner of thinking characteristic of a group, social class, or individual.” While it is natural for people to have differing ideas and ideals concerning ecclesial, economic, or political theory and policy, the problem is that too many people become so entrenched in their own ideas that they refuse to listen to people with differing ideas, views, and perspectives. Adhering to radically ideological thinking fosters an unwillingness to listen to others. This lack of listening and dialogue only increases fear, animosity, and hatred of others and eventually leads to violence if left unchecked.  All of us need to learn to listen to one another and to listen together to the Holy Spirit and discern the Spirit’s action in our lives and in the life of the Church.