{"id":12081,"date":"2026-04-20T03:49:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/20\/were-catholic-first-sunday-mass-attendees-weigh-in-on-trumps-feud-with-pope-leo-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T03:49:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:49:39","slug":"were-catholic-first-sunday-mass-attendees-weigh-in-on-trumps-feud-with-pope-leo-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/20\/were-catholic-first-sunday-mass-attendees-weigh-in-on-trumps-feud-with-pope-leo-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re Catholic first\u2019: Sunday mass attendees weigh in on Trump\u2019s feud with Pope Leo – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Alex Sullivan tended to his five children on the lawn after a traditional Latin mass at the Catholic Church of Saint Monica in Duluth, Georgia<\/a>, and contemplated his faith in the light of God and the shadow of Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, a self-described conservative who once staffed a libertarian state representative at the Georgia<\/a> capitol, described his faith as almost medieval.<\/p>\n

Trump got \u201cover his skis a little bit\u201d in his criticism of Pope Leo XIV<\/a>, but Sullivan said he rejected the idea that the US president\u2019s comments in response to pontifical criticism of the war in Iran might diminish his opinion about the leader of the Catholic<\/a> church.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I will not support the pope any less,\u201d he said. \u201cThere have been times in the past when this pope or the prior pope have done things that I struggle with. Usually I have to pray about it, and sometimes I have to be OK with not<\/em> being OK with what he said and just living in that tension.\u201d<\/p>\n

That tension between faith and politics typifies the American Catholic experience, perhaps never more so than in the past few weeks. Pope Leo has advocated<\/a> for<\/a> peace in the Iran conflict from the moment the US began bombing on 28 February, proclaiming<\/a> on Palm Sunday: \u201cBrothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: \u2018Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood,\u2019\u201d the pope added, quoting scripture.<\/p>\n

<\/gu-island><\/figure>\n

On Easter Sunday, Trump threatened<\/a> to bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran unless the regime opened the strait of Hormuz. Two days later, the US president again made<\/a> extraordinary threats. \u201cA whole civilization will die tonight,\u201d he wrote on Truth Social. Leo XIV called this threat \u201cunacceptable\u201d and asked the public to \u201ccontact the authorities \u2013 political leaders, congressmen\u201d. On 12 April, three American cardinals appeared on 60 Minutes<\/a>, calling into question the morality and ethics of US attacks on Iran. Trump exploded on social media later that night in a lengthy post on Truth Social, calling<\/a> the pope \u201cWEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy\u201d and claiming that Leo\u2019s ascension as the first American-born pontiff should be considered a response by the church to Trump\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

The president subsequently posted<\/a> an AI-generated image depicting himself as Christ. Trump subsequently removed the image and claimed he thought he was being depicted, in a flowing red and white robe before a heavenly host, \u201cas a doctor\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Catholics around Atlanta<\/a> treated the president\u2019s comments toward the pope with disdainful resignation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s been a long history of the Roman emperor \u2013 the large hegemony political figure \u2013 fighting with the Holy Father,\u201d said Alex Aboutanos, a software engineer in Duluth. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing new under the sun here. There can be legitimate political disagreement about what\u2019s the right move.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tone of the president has been a problem, Aboutnas said. \u201cI can disagree with my own personal father, but I don\u2019t speak to him like that. I don\u2019t name-call him. I have to listen to what he says and then disagree. That\u2019s not proper. And as to the image \u2026 that move was wrong, and I think he recognized that, and it was a rare move where he actually removed it. Which tells me that \u2026 I\u2019m not going to say that he recognized his fault, but his PR guy recognized the fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"trump<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Donald Trump and an AI-generated picture he posted on his Truth Social platform after criticizing Pope Leo.<\/span> Photograph: Mandel Ngan\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The AI image also crossed a line for Nick Dicarlo, an operations manager in Duluth and a self-described conservative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of his depiction of himself as our Lord, you know \u2026 that\u2019s a pretty major problem. I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s thinking there,\u201d Dicarlo said. \u201cReally, what he needs to do is publicly recant it because that\u2019s something that needs some reparation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AI meme image was a bad idea, said Kate Stroth after mass at Atlanta\u2019s Cathedral of Christ the King. She and her husband, Dave, self-identify as political conservatives and Trump voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t like it, and it\u2019s one of the first things that he\u2019s ever done that I was just strongly opposed to,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd some of the harsh words may be a conflict, but that\u2019s typical. Nobody\u2019s going to be perfect. Not even the pope. Not even Donald J Trump. He\u2019s not a Catholic, so it hasn\u2019t changed my opinion of him. It actually just shows a lot of blind spots that he might have with regards to faith and his awareness of his own faith, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily change my viewpoint of him as a president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stroth spoke carefully about her views of the pope. \u201cMy first inclination has always been that the pope doesn\u2019t really understand the full political landscape, that he has a certain lens that he\u2019s choosing to see it through,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s certainly entitled to his opinion, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that \u2026 I do support what President Trump has done with the military and the action he\u2019s taken, because I kind of see it through that lens, and I think it\u2019s a protective measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Stroth described their voting behavior around issues, not individuals, and the dispute changes nothing about their underlying political interests, \u201cpeace through strength, limited crime on streets, proper immigration \u2013 all those things we\u2019ve achieved\u201d, he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t vote for president for personal reasons. We vote for execution about the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/gu-island><\/figure>\n

But, \u201cto attack the pope as weak, he probably didn\u2019t need to go there,\u201dhe said. \u201cIt\u2019s classic Donald Trump<\/a>, back to The Art of the Deal. If he\u2019s a world leader, he\u2019s fair game, but my pope I\u2019ll protect, so that was probably unkind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many expressed admiration for Leo\u2019s uncompromising position against war as a fundamental expression of Catholic doctrine, and said they viewed attacks on the pope\u2019s call for peace as absurd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president was saying that the pope wanted Iran to have nuclear weapons, and I don\u2019t think the pope said that. The president just says stuff that people haven\u2019t said,\u201d said James Echols after mass at St Patrick\u2019s Catholic church in Norcross. Asked if he viewed the president\u2019s comments as an attack on his religion, Echols replied: \u201cI don\u2019t think he really cares about religion. I think he just says things to try to get people on his side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echols voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. His wife, Maribic Echols, voted for Trump. The president\u2019s comments have caused her to reconsider her support, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve changed, because this is not what I was expecting when I was voting for him \u2013 about the war, and about people being arrested who are not supposed to be arrested,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

About 55% of American Catholics cast a vote for Trump in 2024<\/a>. Polls suggest Catholic support for the president is eroding<\/a> as the war, high gas prices<\/a>, the revelations in the Epstein files and a litany of scandals within the administration take their toll.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re Catholic first. The Republican party does not perfectly align with my views,\u201d Dicarlo said. \u201cThey\u2019re just closer than the Democratic party. And they almost always fail to live up to even the principles they say they have. But in some of the core issues affecting our culture \u2026 they will at least more slowly do damage 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 was that there\u2019s at least some good there that I think I can vote for and there\u2019s less harm than the other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Sullivan tended to his five children on the lawn after a traditional Latin mass at the Catholic Church of Saint Monica in Duluth, Georgia, and contemplated his faith in the light of God and the shadow of Donald Trump. Sullivan, a self-described conservative who once staffed a libertarian state representative at the Georgia capitol, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}