‘We’re Catholic first’: Sunday mass attendees weigh in on Trump’s feud with Pope Leo | Georgia

Alex Sullivan tended to his five children on the lawn after a traditional Latin Mass at Saint Monica Catholic Church in Duluth, Ga., and contemplated his faith in the light of God and the shadow of Donald Trump.

Sullivan, a self-described conservative who once worked as a libertarian state representative in Georgia’s capitol, described his faith as almost medieval.

Trump was “a little overstated” in his criticism of Pope Leo

“No, I will not support the pope any less,” he said. “There have been times in the past where this pope or the previous pope has done things that I have difficulty with. Usually I have to pray about it, and sometimes I have to agree with it. not agreeing with what he said and simply living in that tension.

This tension between faith and politics is typical of the American Catholic experience, perhaps never more so than in recent weeks. Pope Leo pleaded for peace in the Iranian conflict from the start of the U.S. bombing on February 28, proclaiming on Palm Sunday: “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. »

“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but he rejects them, saying: ‘Even if you pray many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood,'” the pope added, quoting Scripture.

On Easter Sunday, Trump threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran unless the regime opened the Strait of Hormuz. Two days later, the American president again made extraordinary threats. “An entire civilization will die tonight,” he wrote on Truth Social. Leo XIV called the threat “unacceptable” and asked the public to “contact the authorities – political leaders, members of Congress.” On April 12, three American cardinals appeared on 60 Minutes, questioning the morality and ethics of America’s attacks on Iran. Trump exploded on social media later that night in a lengthy post on Truth Social, calling the pope “WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy” and saying Leo’s ascension as the first American-born pontiff should be seen as the Church’s response to Trump’s election.

The president then posted an AI-generated image depicting him as Christ. Trump later removed the image and claimed he thought he was depicted, in a flowing red and white robe, in front of a celestial army, “like a doctor.”

Catholics in Atlanta on Sunday treated the president’s comments about the pope with dismissive resignation.

“I think there’s a long history of fighting between the Roman emperor — the great hegemonic political figure — and the Holy Father,” said Alex Aboutanos, a software engineer in Duluth. “There is nothing new under the sun here. There can be legitimate political disagreements about the right decision.”

The president’s tone is problematic, Aboutnas said. “I can disagree with my own father, but I don’t talk to him like that. I don’t insult him. I have to listen to what he says and then disagree. It’s not okay. And as for the image… that gesture was wrong, and I think he admitted to it, and it was a rare decision where he actually deleted it. Which tells me that… I’m not going to say he admitted wrongdoing, but his PR person admitted wrongdoing.”

The image of AI also crossed a line for Nick Dicarlo, director of operations in Duluth and self-described conservative.

“As far as his portrayal of himself as our Lord, you know…that’s a pretty big issue. I don’t know what he’s thinking there,” Dicarlo said. “Really, what he needs to do is publicly retract his remarks because this is something that requires redress.”

The AI ​​meme image was a bad idea, Kate Stroth said after mass at Atlanta’s Cathedral of Christ the King. She and her husband, Dave, identify as political conservatives and Trump voters.

“I didn’t like it, and it was one of the first things he did that I was strongly opposed to,” she said. “And some harsh words can be confrontational, but that’s typical. No one is going to be perfect. Not even the Pope. Not even Donald J. Trump. He’s not Catholic, so it hasn’t changed my opinion of him. In fact, it just shows a lot of blind spots he might have when it comes to faith and his awareness of his own faith, but it doesn’t necessarily change my view of him as president.”

Stroth spoke carefully about his views on the pope. “My first inclination has always been that the pope doesn’t really understand the whole political landscape, that he chooses to see it through a certain lens,” she said. “He’s certainly entitled to his opinion, and there’s nothing wrong with that…I support what President Trump has done with the military and the steps he’s taken, because I kind of see it through that lens, and I think it’s a protective measure.”

Dave Stroth described their voting behavior around issues, not individuals, and the conflict doesn’t change their underlying political interests, “peace through strength, keeping crime down on the streets, proper immigration — all those things we’ve achieved,” he said. “We don’t vote for personal reasons. We vote for getting the job done.”

But “to attack the pope as weak, he probably didn’t need to go there,” he said. “It’s classic Donald Trump, back to The Art of the Deal. If he’s a world leader, he’s fair game, but I’ll protect my pope, so it was probably mean.”

Many expressed admiration for Leo’s uncompromising stance against war as a fundamental expression of Catholic doctrine, and said they considered attacks on the pope’s call for peace to be absurd.

“The president was saying the pope wanted Iran to have nuclear weapons, and I don’t think the pope said that. The president is just saying things that people haven’t said,” James Echols said after mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Norcross. Asked if he viewed the president’s comments as an attack on his religion, Echols said, “I don’t think he really cares about religion. I think he just says things to try to get people on his side.”

Echols voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. His wife, Maribic Echols, voted for Trump. The president’s comments made her reconsider her support, she said.

“I changed, because that’s not what I expected when I was voting for him – about the war and people being arrested who aren’t supposed to be,” she said.

About 55% of American Catholics voted for Trump in 2024. Polls suggest Catholic support for the president is eroding as war, high gasoline prices, revelations in the Epstein files and a litany of scandals within the administration take their toll.

“We are Catholic first and foremost. The Republican Party does not perfectly align with my views,” Dicarlo said. “They are just closer than the Democratic Party. And they almost always fail to live up to the principles they claim to stand for. But in some of the fundamental issues that affect our culture… they will at least do damage more slowly than the alternative. So it has nothing to do with an allegiance to Trump. The fact that I voted for him is not because I saw him as this savior. It’s that there is at least some good in there that I think I can vote for and that there is less evil than the other.”