Pope Leo XIV told reporters en route to Algeria yesterday that he has “no fear of the Trump Administration”, hours after United States President Donald Trump made a vicious attack on the pontiff via social media. Source: NCR Online.
“I don’t want to get into a debate with him [Trump],” the US-born Pope told Reuters on the two-hour flight from Rome. “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”
In a post on Truth Social the evening before the Pope was set to depart on his 11-day, four-nation tour of Africa, Mr Trump wrote that Leo “should get his act together as pope and use common sense,” calling him “weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy.”
Asked about the post, Leo told NBC News, “we are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he [Trump] might understand it.”
And in response to a question from the Associated Press, the Pope said that “to put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is.”
“I am sorry to hear that, but I will continue on with what I believe is the mission of the Church in the world today,” he said.
The direct responses on hot-button topics are rare from a pope at the start of his travels, who tend to avoid commenting on controversial topics so as to not divert attention away from the trip itself.
Yet Leo did not shy away from questions around Mr Trump’s post, in which he said Leo should not strive to be a politician and that he was only elected to the papacy in response to Mr Trump’s election.
The Pope instead insisted on his responsibility to speak out against war in his capacity as a peacemaker.
“I do not look at my role as being political, a politician,” he said. “Too many people are suffering in the world today, too many innocent people are being killed, and someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”
FULL STORY
Pope Leo says he has ‘no fear’ of Trump Administration after attack from president (By Justin McLellan, NCR Online)
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