Pope Leo brushes off Trump attack as a Chicago Catholic leader says president is 'waking up a sleeping giant'

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Catholic leaders, along with Gov. JB Pritzker and his gubernatorial rival Darren Bailey, are defending Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV — as President Donald Trump faces backlash for calling the head of the Catholic church "terrible for foreign policy" and posting a since-deleted AI-generated image of the president as Jesus.

"I think that he's going to rally people of faith to say, 'Thank God he's standing up,' and that we stand with him," said Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church. "I think Trump unconsciously is waking up a sleeping giant...

I think he's going to be a very strong voice, and he's not going away.

He's not going anywhere."

Trump on Sunday night posted a lengthy social media post criticizing Pope Leo as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”

“...And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States,” Trump said in a post that also mentioned Democratic strategist David Axelrod’s visit with the Pope at the Vatican last week.

“Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician," Trump wrote. "It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!"

Trump later posted an AI-generated image which portrayed himself as Jesus healing a sick man.

The post was removed amid backlash from several corners of the religious right.

The president told reporters outside the Oval Office on Monday the image was “supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better.”

After nearly a year of addressing concern over Trump administration policies, but never name dropping, Pope Leo directly addressed Trump's attack on Monday aboard the papal plane headed to Algeria, according to the Associated Press.

“I’m not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the Church works for," Pope Leo said.

"We are not politicians.

We do not look at foreign policy from the same perspective that he may have,’' the pope said, adding, ”I will continue to speak out strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems."

Pritzker avoided making a political statement on the Trump vs.

Pope war and instead https://x.com/GovPritzker/status/2043724449472499796?s=20" target="_blank" >posted an image of his meeting with Pope Leo during a visit last year: “The Pope lifts his voice as part of a higher calling - one centered on peace and the preservation of human life,” the governor wrote.

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Provided

Bailey, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, criticized Trump's AI image, writing on X, "I'm a Christian and I'm an Illinoisan.

President Trump mocking a Chicago-born Pope and posting himself as Jesus Christ is wrong."

Bishop Robert Barron, a Chicago native now serving as a member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, called Trump's remarks “entirely inappropriate and disrespectful,” and said “they don’t contribute at all to a constructive conversation.” But he also heaped praise on Trump for reaching out to Catholics and other people of faith.

He wrote, “It is the Pope’s prerogative to articulate Catholic doctrine and the principles that govern the moral life.”

“All that said, I think the President owes the Pope an apology,” Barron said.

Trump’s comments came after three top American cardinals, including Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, appeared on https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-leo-iran-war-mass-deportation-statements-inspire-american-cardinals-60-minutes-transcript/" target="_blank" >“60 Minutes” on Sunday in an interview praising Pope Leo for his moral opposition to the war in Iran and his comments about immigration.

"We're dehumanizing the victims of war by turning the suffering of people and the killing of children and our own soldiers into entertainment.

To splice together movie cuts with actual bombings and targeting of people for the purposes of entertainment is sickening,” Cupich said. “This is not who we are.

We are better than this."

Pope Leo last week also spoke out after Trump threatened to wipe out "a whole civilization" in Iran, calling the president's words "really not acceptable," and urging people to call their political leaders to "work for peace and reject war always."

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called Trump’s attack on Pope Leo “disparaging.”

"Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician,” Coakley said in a statement. “He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls.”

Pfleger said Trump has “met his match” in Pope Leo.

“You know what this Pope is going to do is he's going to continue to be a moral conscience, which is what the faith community is supposed to be,” Pfleger said. “He's not going to play the political games, but he's going to be a moral conscience.

And to me, what I think is so great is he is challenging the president on the Scriptures.

To me, that's so important, because the Christian right has manipulated and tried to hijack the Scriptures to justify the evil and the wickedness that has been going on.”

Pfleger said his parishioners are telling him, “‘I’m so glad that we’re standing with the Pope.'” The Chicago pastor said he’s hearing from a group text chain with other pastors — and he’s the only Catholic in the group.

“They were all just so thankful that the Pope is standing up,” Pfleger said.