The pope may be many things in many contexts, but he should avoid becoming a shill for the Democratic Party. This is how he came across when he delivered a political statement just after he had been visited by David Axelrod, Obama’s behind-the-scenes heavy.
The effect was redoubled when leading liberal Cardinals, including Chicago’s Blase Cupich, put on a media floorshow to promote the pope’s “message to America.” It was prattle we had heard many times before, from nice, peaceful politicians like Jimmy Carter: peace-not-war, appeasement, and negotiation at any price.
The pope had been proclaiming this himself on Twitter when he was only Cardinal Robert Prevost: simplistic Leftism along with Democratic talking points, and open immigration.
President Trump responded: “Leo should put his affairs in order as Pope, use common sense, stop pleasing the radical left, and focus on being a great Pope, not a politician. This is hurting him badly and, more importantly, it is hurting the Catholic Church.”
I copy this final passage from his Truth Social, as it is habitually overlooked by the press. Trump was not attacking the Catholic Church. He was being characteristically frank, as one would expect churchmen to be frank sometimes too.
The contrary impression—that Trump was throwing a low blow—was created by spokesmen from the anti-Trump camp, with fond memories of the days when the Catholic Church could almost be presented as a department of the Democratic Party. This remains part of left-wing mythology, and the media still want to believe it, even though American Catholics have mostly come out of the abortion sewer in which they had been deposited.
Continue reading at the Catholic Thing