Miami’s Archbishop speaks out about Trump’s feud with Pope Leo
As President Donald Trump spars with Pope Leo XIV and posts provocative religious images on his social media, Miami’s Catholic archbishop wants to remind the faithful that this isn’t the first time the church has clashed with political leaders.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski is speaking out at a time when the world’s two most influential U.S. leaders — the pope and Trump — have openly disagreed about the war in Iran, which has stretched into its seventh week. The pope recently condemned the war’s “absurd and inhuman violence,” appealing for peace in the Middle East, and responded to Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization on Easter Sunday as “truly unacceptable.”
“The pope doesn’t have to please anybody except the Lord,” Wenski said in an interview Monday, adding that some people “will be upset” and others “will applaud what he says,” but that Pope Leo is not looking for reactions one way or another.
“As religious leaders we should be political but not partisan,” Wenski said. “Politics is about how we organize society ... and the church has something to say about that. What ways we can organize society that will increase human flourishing?”
Wenski pointed out that Pope John Paul II was strongly opposed to the Iraq war and made that known to then-President George W. Bush. Conflicts are expected between leaders, but it’s important for people to weigh the arguments of religious leaders as well as secular leaders, said Wenski.
“Because sometimes their arguments are based on solid theological and philosophical premises, and not just on emotions,” Wenski said.
Wenski said the church, including the pope and the bishops, “will upset people on the right sometimes, and they’ll upset people on the left sometimes,” but that is how the church shows that “we’re doing our job.”
What’s unusual in the case of the pope’s recent criticism of Trump’s military action in Iran, said Wenski, is that the president would attack the Catholic leader directly. Trump posted a lengthy criticism of Pope Leo, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.”
On Monday, the pope told reporters he is “not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the Church works for.”
‘I think he probably regrets it’
Wenski also commented on a religiously provocative image Trump posted to his social media. Trump shared the now-deleted image, which showed Trump wearing a biblical-style robe and appearing to heal a sick man with his light-filled hands, on Truth Social Sunday night, but deleted the post on Monday morning. Religious and political leaders from around the world condemned the image, some calling it a sacrilege.
“As Christians, we all should try to look like Jesus, not in appearances, but in our actions,” Wenski said, referring to the image of Trump. Trump said at a press conference on Monday that he thought the image depicted him as a healer, not as a deity.
“I think he probably regrets it,” Wenski said about Trump’s post. “The fact that it’s taken down, and now the president is saying that he thought it was an image of a doctor says that he’s putting some spin on it.”
Trump’s controversial social media post depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure is more “damaging” to his own image as a leader than it is to the Catholic Church, said Wenski.
As faith leaders continue to toe the line between politics and religious teachings, Wenski said that priests and other clergy do not need to shy away from politics, but should not show bias toward one political party over another.
Catholics should be focused on living out the gospel, Wenski said, which may put them at odds with their own political leanings.
“A Catholic that’s trying to live out those teachings will feel homeless in either party at this point,” he said.
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and donors in South Florida’s Jewish and Muslim communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza and the Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
This story was originally published April 13, 2026 at 6:58 PM.
