The Political Pope
A year ago, US citizen Robert Francis Trevost was elected Pope Leo XIV.
His choice of name alone made his political agenda clear: his predecessor, Leo XIII, was the founder of Catholic social teaching. Catholic social teaching means peace and social justice. The new Pope is living up to this agenda.
US President Donald Trump’s vulgar tirades against his compatriot in the Vatican have quickly made Pope Leo popular worldwide. Anyone who insults this Pope of social peace makes themselves unpopular. Donald Trump’s poor poll ratings make this fact clearer by the day.
Trump says that without him, “Leo would never have become Pope”. The truth is rather that, partly because of Leo, Trump could soon be finished. The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “What does it mean for Catholics in the US that their president attacks their Pope in this way: could it be the beginning of the end for Trump? And for Leo, the beginning of something greater?” (Süddeutsche, 7 May 2026).
The Pope is “terrible” and “weak”, he even wants “Iran to have the atomic bomb”, Trump ranted on several occasions. Yet everyone knows that popes have long condemned global nuclear policy. Pope Pius XII himself said: “Nothing is lost with peace, but everything can be lost with war.”
Leo’s measured response to Trump: “If anyone wishes to criticise me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so with the truth.” Trump has once again been exposed as a liar, by the Pope himself.
Power versus morality
Trump has now said for the second time that he wants to “wipe out Iranian civilisation”. A follower of Jesus must, of course, take a stand against this madness. Leo: “The peace of the risen Christ is an unarmed and disarming peace, humble and persevering.” Leo is quite simply right when he sharply laments the “global trend towards military rearmament” and criticises the “zeal for war”. The battle “power versus morality” thus continues. Leo: “A disciple of Christ never stands on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.” The Pope did not name Trump by name. But a cornered dog will bite. Trump now has a powerful new adversary. After just one year, Leo has already become the anti-Trump.
As the number of warmongers grows, peacemakers become ever more important. “Swords into ploughshares”: under this biblical motto, the peace movement in the GDR defeated the GDR regime over 35 years ago – with the help of the peace advocate Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was a friend of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and took his message of peace seriously. Together with him, I wrote the book in 2016: “Listen to reason – War no more!: An Appeal from Mikhail Gorbachev to the world” (English Edition). Where is today’s Gorbachev? Will today’s Gorbachev soon be called Leo?
For centuries, the Christian churches have struggled with the secular Enlightenment. Yet today, paradoxically, it is a Pope of all people who wants to help a contemporary Enlightenment achieve a breakthrough. Thank God. On the subject of climate change, too, Leo XIV repeatedly criticised those “who do not yet recognise the urgency of caring for our common home, creation”. In April, he toured four African countries for eleven days to criticise the exploitation of natural resources, call for greater social justice and urge an end to violence.
A church in step with the times needs the Jesus-inspired visions of peace, the preservation of creation and social justice. As early as autumn 2025, Pope Leo had asked the US bishops to take action against Trump’s xenophobic migration policy. The conflict between power and morality has only just begun, for the Vatican has just announced that it will continue to uphold international law, globalisation and the values of the Enlightenment. ‘Catholic’ derives from the Greek ‘katholikos’ and ultimately means ‘worldwide’, ‘all-encompassing’, ‘concerning the whole’.
Leo has appointed a new bishop for West Virginia. The man originally came to the USA from El Salvador. As a migrant without a residence permit. That is Pax Christi in action. It is impossible for Christians to be apolitical.
