Elected Thursday as the Catholic Church's first global leader to hail from the United States, Pope Leo XIV is in a new job that will have many crossovers into politics — a realm not entirely unknown to the Chicago-born priest, whose social media history includes sharing criticism of Trump administration policies and of comments by Vice President JD Vance.
President Donald Trump has wished the new pope well in his role, calling Leo's election “such an honor for our country.” But it comes days after Trump posted an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself dressed as pope amid days of official mourning for Pope Francis. That act raised eyebrows at the Vatican and was denounced by former Italian Premier Romano Prodi as indecent political interference in matters of faith.
And last month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the end of a half-century of partnerships with the federal U.S. government to serve refugees and migrant children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision followed the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding.
The majority of Leo's posts on the X platform are related to or in support of Catholic news and church initiatives. He rarely writes original content, but a look back through his social media timeline shows numerous posts sharing viewpoints opposed to moves aimed at restricting acceptance of migrants and refugees in the U.S.
Leo has recently criticized U.S. Vice President JD Vance
Vance, a convert to Catholicism, is the most high-profile Catholic in American politics. He's drawn attention from the man who now leads the global church, prompting Leo to return to X after a nearly two-year absence to share criticism of the vice president's views.
In early February, Leo shared an article from a Catholic publication with the headline, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
It came days after Vance — in discussing critiques of the Trump administration’s immigration policies — in a Fox News interview had referenced a Christian tenet “that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world.”
In response to online criticism of his position, Vance posted on X, “Just google ‘ordo amoris.’ Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense.”
“Ordo amoris,” a historic Catholic tenet, translates to “order of love.”
Ten days after his initial post, Leo shared another piece from a Jesuit publication, titled, “Pope Francis’ letter, JD Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration.”
Prior to his first February post, Leo had been dormant on X since July 2023.
After Leo's election Thursday, Vance posted congratulations on X, adding, ”I’m sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church. May God bless him!"
His last post before becoming pope was critical of the Trump administration
The pope's final post as Cardinal Robert Prevost was a recirculation on April 14 of a post by church chronicler Rocco Palmo about Trump's Oval Office meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Bukele said it was “preposterous” for his country to bring a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there in March back to the U.S., despite a Supreme Court ruling calling on the administration to “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return.
Leo reposted Palmo's link to an article by Washington-area Bishop Evelio Menjivar — who was born in El Salvador — asking, “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”
His sharing of critiques dates back nearly a decade
As Trump's campaign ramped up in July 2015, Leo posted to X a Washington Post op-ed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, with the headline, “Why Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is so problematic.”
In the wake of Trump's first election in 2016, Leo reposted a homily in which Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez — characterizing the fear among many, including schoolchildren who “think the government is going to come and deport their parents, any day now" — said that America is “better than this.”
Days later, Leo also posted an article by a Catholic outlet quoting Democrats as saying that, in her loss, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton “ignored pro-lifers at her own peril.”
In September 2017, months into Trump's first term, Leo recirculated a post by author-activist Sister Helen Prejean saying she stands “with the #Dreamers and all people who are working toward an immigration system that is fair, just, and moral.”
He also reposted church chronicler Rocco Palmo's piece with the teaser, “Saying Trump’s ‘bad hombres’ line fuels ‘racism and nativism,’ Cali bishops send preemptive blast on DACA repeal.”
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press
