Pope Leo XIV’s first Easter address called for peace and dialogue in a time of war in the Middle East. He got the dialogue, all right — in the form of an ongoing back and forth with the White House over who gets to weigh in on politics and whether war can be righteous.
“On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars,” the first U.S.-born pontiff told tens of thousands of people who packed St. Peter’s Square on April 5.
Mr. Trump called the pontiff “weak on crime,” accusing him of “catering to the radical left.” The president posted an image, created by artificial intelligence, of himself as a Jesus figure and also said the pope owed his papacy to Mr. Trump. He later deleted the image, saying he had thought it depicted him as a doctor.
Vice President JD Vance, who is the highest-ranking Catholic in federal government, has taken the side of his boss.
The vice president said on Fox News that the pope should “stick to matters of, you know, what’s going on in the Catholic Church” and leave the public policy to Mr. Trump.
Around the country, at Catholic churches where Mr. Vance and the pope have roots, reporters for The New York Times asked worshipers what they thought of the dispute.
Cincinnati
Back in 2019, St. Gertrude Church in Cincinnati got frequent visits from a young man curious about Catholicism — and politics. He was Mr. Vance, then a 35-year-old venture capitalist who was raised in the evangelical church but considered himself an atheist at the time.
Mr. Vance has said he was drawn to the Catholic Church’s ancient teachings.
On Sunday, the church service at St. Gertrude featured colorful vestments, incense, a traditional homily and plenty of squirming children — but there was no mention from the altar of the dispute.
Joe Schmidt, 46, a local parishioner, said the parish community was theologically conservative but tried to avoid politics. He added that he was glad the pope had spoken out about Mr. Trump’s threats to destroy Iranian civilization.
“We always want peace,” he said.
The Rev. Reginald Hoefer, the parochial vicar, said he did not want to weigh in on the back and forth.
“I don’t really follow the news,” he said. “I’m too busy running the church.”
Villanova University
There was far more discussion about the dispute at the university where Pope Leo, then Robert Prevost, earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977. The student body at the school outside Philadelphia leans to the left and in 2024 voted for Kamala Harris over Mr. Trump by a 2-to-1 margin, according to the student newspaper, the Villanovan.
Rev. Peter Donohue, the university’s president, touched on the disagreement in his homily without calling anybody out by name.
Father Donohue likened the back and forth to Luke 24:13-35, which tells the story of two disciples of Jesus so engaged in conversation about the news of his crucifixion that they failed to recognize Jesus himself, as he met them along a road and spoke of Scripture.
Father Donohue implored his congregation to similarly not get wrapped up in the news but instead to turn to gospel for answers.
Hope DiGiovanni, 22, a senior from New Jersey, said she was happy that Pope Leo was “taking a stand on current issues and standing up for the faith.”
Max D’Amore, a freshman from Massachusetts, said that when a teacher in a freshman humanities course started a discussion about the exchange between the president and the pontiff, his classmates appeared uniformly opposed to Mr. Trump’s statements. Students were particularly turned off by the president’s posting the image likening himself to Jesus, Mr. D’Amore said.
“The reactions were definitely like, you know, who would do something like that?” he added.
Chicago
At Holy Name Cathedral, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Chicago, where Pope Leo grew up, the Rev. Louis Cameli addressed the dispute head-on at the Saturday evening mass.
“The church doesn’t offer policies or strategies or directions on how to govern,” he said. “The church offers a vision of values, values that respect life. Those values — that’s what the Holy Father is reminding all of us about.”
Sam Turner, a 49-year-old physician from Virginia who attended the Mass while visiting Chicago, said he thought that most of Mr. Trump’s policies aligned with the Catholic Church, citing the push to limit abortion rights in particular.
“I think he does make some Catholics scratch their heads, but overall his policies are supportive and align with church teachings,” Mr. Turner said.
On Sunday morning, at Christ Our Savior Catholic Parish in suburban South Holland, Ill., which bills itself as “the de facto home parish of Pope Leo XIV,” the dispute was on the minds of several parishioners.
Mary Onwunah, a 60-year-old nurse, called the president’s criticism of the pope “ridiculous” and said she appreciated that the pope had not gone quiet.
“He’s not going to succumb to the president,” she said.
Heather Knight is a reporter in San Francisco, leading The Times’s coverage of the Bay Area and Northern California.
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