Last spring, for the first time in history, an American was elected pope. Many hoped that Leo XIV would act as a counterweight to Donald Trump. Others hoped that he would be content to shepherd the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics and let someone else be the face of the global resistance.
Leo reigned quietly until Trump started a war with Iran. Leo lamented the war, as any modern pope would. Since then, tensions between the White House and the Vatican have escalated in an unprecedented way. The essential blame lies with Trump, for his gross intemperance. And at the height of the controversy, Leo is still far from being the resistance pope. But the dismaying spectacle reveals a downside for American Catholics in having a pope who takes American affairs so much to heart.