President Donald Trump’s recent criticisms of Pope Leo were “ very unfortunate,” according to a prominent retired American cardinal.
Speaking with Fox News on Thursday, Timothy Dolan said Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the Vatican was an important one, given the back-and-forth criticisms between the administration and the Holy See over the Iran war in recent weeks.
“There’s no denying the fact that this was especially pressing insofar as what I would consider the very unfortunate remarks of President Trump,” Dolan told anchor Martha MacCallum. “The friendship between the Holy See and the American government has been strong and vibrant, and they both know they need each other.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Dolan said he had great respect for both Pope Leo and Rubio, and that the alliance between the world’s preeminent political power and its “most forceful spiritual power” was an important one.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
President Trump ignited the feud last month, accusing the pope of being soft on crime and terrorism after he had criticized the administration’s immigration policies and war with Iran.
Though tensions have quieted somewhat in recent days, the president and the Catholic Church leadership still appear to be at odds.
“Well, the Pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said in an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show on Sunday. “I don’t think that’s very good. “
“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people, but I guess, if it’s up to the Pope,” the president added. “He thinks it's just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
These comments soon drew a response from the Vatican.
“The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace,” Pope Leo told reporters on Tuesday. “If someone wants to criticize me for proclaiming the Gospel, let him do so truthfully...For years, the Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt on that point.”
"Attacking him like that or criticizing what he does seems a bit strange to me, to say the least," Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, added on Wednesday.
During the Thursday visit itself, the pope and Rubio struck a diplomatic tone, exchanging gifts, with Leo giving Rubio a pen made of olive wood as a symbol of peace, but the institutions they represent remain far apart.
The pope has strongly criticized the Iran war from a religious perspective, arguing that the Gospel is on the side of peacemakers, though he has insisted he’s not interested in partisanship or debating the Trump administration specifically.
“God does not bless any conflict; to cry out to the world that whoever is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, never stands on the side of those who yesterday wielded the sword and today drop bombs,” Pope Leo told a group of bishops in Iraq last month, in comments that set off the Trump firestorm.
The president soon fired back with criticisms of the pope, as did Vice President JD Vance, a practicing Catholic, who suggested the pope was ignoring religious theory that blessed some just wars.
The Trump administration further enraged Catholics last month after the president posted an image depicting himself as Jesus healing a sick man, though the president claimed the image was only meant to resemble a doctor.
Outside of these more recent flare-ups, tension has simmered for months, all the same, with the church leaders criticizing the Trump administration’s military-style deportation crackdown on immigrants, and the Trump administration canceling a longstanding partnership with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for refugee resettlement in 2025.
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