At the Heart of the Controversy Is the War
The Catholic Magisterium recognizes a set of conditions that must be met for a country to wage a just war. These include the harm inflicted by the aggressor, the impossibility of ending the suffering by other means and “serious prospects of success”, meaning that the effort must not be futile (CCC 2309).
Elsewhere, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the damage caused by a defensive war must not exceed the harm inflicted by the aggressor (CCC 2243).
As with basic human rights, education and environmental care, modern international organizations draw in part on Catholic teaching. The ideas developed most fully by Doctor Angelicus, St. Thomas Aquinas, have found their way into documents such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Justice in war lies not only in the conditions for entering it, but also in the methods used to wage it. Medieval scholasticism therefore distinguishes between the “right to war” (ius ad bellum) and the “right in war” (ius in bello), concepts linked as cause and means.
In addition to Aquinas’s conditions – the legitimate authority of the ruler declaring war, the redress of a wrong suffered, and the pursuit of a just intention so that the harm caused does not exceed the good sought – there are also rules governing conduct in war: proportionality and distinction.
Proportionality is widely understood. The principle of distinction is more nuanced: according to Aquinas, unintended civilian casualties resulting from a just action are not necessarily sinful.
This framework explains why Trump has warned that Iran possesses ballistic capabilities capable of reaching the United States, and why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed since 1992 that Tehran is only months or weeks away from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Yet when those allies attacked the Islamic Republic on February 28, killing the head of state and dozens of other officials, the conditions were not objectively met. That, in turn, prompted the deputy of Christ to issue a series of critical statements about the conflict.
The first American pope made his most explicit remarks during the Octave of Easter, on Saturday, April 11. Speaking at a prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, he described the global situation as a “dramatic moment in history” in which “the crucifixion and destruction of life continues unabated.”
Although he did not name anyone, the public and the media interpreted the remarks as criticism of the White House. The response was swift. Two days later, Trump, in his characteristic style, took aim at the head of the world’s largest church.
"Pope Leo is weak on crime fighting and terrible on foreign policy", Trump wrote on Truth Social. He added that Leo "is weak on nuclear weapons" and "caves to the left".
"I like his brother Louis a lot more than him because Louis is totally MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!" the president added. The eldest of the Prevost brothers has long supported the Republican Party. It remains unclear how he has responded to personal attacks on his ordained brother, born Robert Francis Prevost.
Trump went on to say that the pope "should be grateful", claiming the Vatican had positioned him as a counterweight. He argued that Leo "was not on any list of candidates and the Church only put him there because he was an American and they thought that would be the best way to deal with (…) Trump".
"If I were not in the White House, Leo would not be in the Vatican", he wrote. In making that claim, Trump appeared to misunderstand the election of the Bishop of Rome. A conclave is a gathering of cardinal electors who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, choose the successor to St. Peter. Any "lists of candidates" exist only in media speculation.
Hours later, the US president released one of the most controversial images of his tenure. In the AI-generated image, he appears as Jesus Christ healing a reclining patient.
Trump subsequently deleted the image, later arguing that it depicted him as a doctor. Shortly afterward, JD Vance backed him, saying it was just a joke. Meanwhile, the vice president, despite his Catholic beliefs, supported Trump and criticized the pope’s stance.
"I certainly think that in some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality", Vance told Fox News. The remark also drew open criticism from within his own ranks – condemning war is part of Catholic moral teaching.
Leo told reporters at the start of his African tour on 13 April that he was "not afraid" of any secular ruler. "I am not afraid of the Trump administration, nor of speaking publicly about the Gospel message", he said.
"The Pope must understand – it's very simple – Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The world would be in great danger", Trump said at the White House on 16 April. "The pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I don't have to agree with him", he added.
"Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable", Trump wrote in a post dated 15 April.
This is a misinterpretation of data from the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which receives grants from the US State Department. At least 42,324 demonstrators have been arrested, the organization said in a January report. By the end of February, the agency had verified at least 7,007 killings.
Catholics in the US on the Rise
But it was the "Jesus" picture that caused the biggest shock to deeply religious right-wingers. "We are a little bit beside ourselves", John Yep, CEO of the nonprofit Catholics for Catholics, told the Wall Street Journal.
In an interview with the New York-based outlet, he said that notifications began arriving during dinner after Mass, alerting him to the image. He added that the overall mood at the table had been sad, as they were puzzled by the president, noting that Catholics had given him such unequivocal support and that he was now treating their faith with disrespect.
Catholics for Catholics is one of the organizations that ensured supporters of the world's largest Christian denomination voted overwhelmingly for Republican candidates in an election year. As many as 60% of Catholics supported Trump in November 2024, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.
About a fifth of American adults identify with the Catholic Church, according to the same survey. The 2020 census shows that Catholics (both Latin and Eastern) represent the largest single church in the US, with 61.9 million citizens claiming affiliation with the Roman Church.
One of the main reasons is the growth of the Hispanic population – up to 50% of Hispanics profess Catholicism. By contrast, non-Hispanic whites primarily identify as Protestant (27% mainline Protestants and 23% evangelicals). Black Americans also overwhelmingly belong to Protestant churches (35% evangelicals and 28% mainline Protestants).
"There is no doubt that President Trump's post insulting Pope Leo has once again crossed the line of decency, which plays an important role in diplomacy", Kelsey Reinhardt, head of CatholicVote, told USA Today.
But even those who are not in union with Rome consider the AI depiction of Trump as Christ the healer to be in poor taste or even blasphemous. The term was used explicitly by Pastor Douglas Wilson, founder of the Presbyterian congregation Christ Church, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also attends.
The conservative writer Rod Dreher, who has gone into "exile" in Hungary, went even further in his criticism, according to the Journal. "I’m not saying Trump is the Antichrist, but he undoubtedly exudes the spirit of the Antichrist."
Ironically, Iranian President Massoud Pesekhtian also sided with the pope. "Your Holiness Pope Leo XIV, on behalf of the great nation of Iran, I condemn the insult to Your Excellency and declare that the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is not acceptable to any free man", he wrote on X.
In addition to Catholic, Orthodox and traditional Protestant Christians, evangelicals, by contrast, are sticking by Trump. They have also been critical of Wilson, whom they consider controversial for his statements about establishing a Christian theocracy in the US and for his proposals to abolish women's suffrage.
Prominent televangelist Paula White, head of the White House Advisory Panel on Faith-Based Issues, on 1 April openly compared Trump to Jesus, saying both were "betrayed and falsely accused".
"I feel uncomfortable with this quasi-sacramental laying on of hands, as if Trump is a uniquely chosen instrument, a kind of civic saint", Wilson said in response to the prayer meetings organized primarily by White.
A serious split can thus be observed within Trump's voter base. In addition to political shifts, such as waning support for Israel among Generation Z, the Republican camp is further fraying, raising concerns ahead of the midterm elections in November. Analysts already consider it likely that the Republican Party will lose its majority in at least one chamber of the US Congress.
The decline in support could have wider-ranging consequences. Vance is often described as the heir apparent to the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, and the White House appears to be carefully shaping his public image with that in mind. Yet he has not distanced himself from Trump on grounds of faith, a stance that could cost him support among former Trump voters.
