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Ah, Now It Becomes Clear
April 18, 2026
Posted 3 hours ago by
This piece in the WSJ (gift link)lays out the history of the church and the US government and as we know it was often hostile mostly due to anti Catholic bigotry. But it changed : Post-Cold War presidents mostly walked in lockstep with Catholic leaders at home and in Rome, with a major exception being the Iraq war. John Paul II advised George W. Bush not to take pre-emptive action against Saddam Hussein.
Bush stayed the course but reaffirmed his respect for the holy father. The next year Bush presented the pope with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, vowing to work with the pope “for human liberty and human dignity, in order to spread peace and compassion.” Trump has chosen a different path. In each election since 2016, Trump won a majority of the White Catholic vote, increasing his percentage in 2024 to about 60. Yet beneath these positive election results, the mood can be tense. Many of the president’s actions suggest values that are out of step with the presidents that came before him; and as recent popes have demonstrated, they are also out of line with the values of the Catholic church. During Trump’s first presidential campaign and first term, Pope Francis noted that the gospel called on Christians to build bridges, not (border) walls. Trump issued a statement that Francis was going to wish Trump was president if ISIS attacked the Vatican. But the real escalation of the conflict has come in recent months. Pope Leo XIV,
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