As U.S. President Donald Trump continues to criticize Pope Leo XIV over his stance on Iran, the Loyola community has grown frustrated with the dispute between the two figures and sided with the Pope to an overwhelming extent.
The exchanges between the two started when members of Trump’s cabinet reached out to the Christian community for prayers against the war taking place in Iran. Pope Leo responded to this stating that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
Lindy Brasher, the University minister for social justice and resident minister, thinks the core of the Pope’s statements are very biblical.
“From a Catholic perspective, that lines up with the idea that you can’t separate prayer from moral action,” Brasher said. “You can’t ask God to bless something that is morally wrong or rooted in violence. So if the comment is pushing back against people using prayer to justify or encourage violence, that’s consistent with both Scripture and Catholic social teaching.”
As a result of the Pope’s stances, Trump has made several public statements condemning the pope for his conflicting values, even creating a now deleted post of Trump depicting himself as Jesus Christ. When faced with backlash, he stated that he was depicting himself as a doctor.
“He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result,” Trump said. “I think he’s very weak on crime and other things, so I’m not going to apologize.
When asked the same question, film student Kelsey Yanez had this to say.
“I agree with [the Pope’s] stance,” Yanez said. “The Pope’s job is to promote peace and God’s teachings, so it makes sense that he would be against this violence.”
Ken Weber, Loyola’s Associate Director of Ministry stated that he thinks Trump’s response is tied to whatever he thinks his responsibility is.
“Pope Leo’s responsibility is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Responses to that preaching have always ranged from rejection to acceptance,” Weber said. “I pray that the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ be accepted ever more deeply by all people, including political leaders like Trump.
Freshman Wyatt Houle thinks that the president’s response was “stupid”. To him it’s obvious that the Pope wouldn’t agree because he’s trying to bring harm to another country.
“And just overall completely shrugging off the head of the Catholic Church and being overall disrespectful. That is very childish and unprofessional.”
When asked about their thoughts of the Pope’s role in foreign politics, Law student Raven Ancar, thinks while Catholicism is a big power house in the world, more perspectives need to be involved.
“I just want other religious leaders of other major religions and minor religions to also be represented in the conversation about global politics.” Ancar said. “It can’t just be the pope, and often I feel like it is”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
