The public dispute between Pope Leo and President Donald Trump has escalated sharply in recent weeks, weighing on the minds of many Catholics across the United States — including in Louisiana.
The disagreement started when Pope Leo XIV said God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.” He didn’t name any specific world leaders, but since the U.S. had just entered into a war with Iran, Trump responded to the Pope’s statement, saying he doesn’t think the Pope is “doing a very good job.”
More than a quarter of people in Louisiana identify as Catholic, according to the U.S. Religion Census — one of the highest rates in the nation. Trump also won the state in the past three presidential elections.
The back-and-forth inspired Baton Rouge Bishop Michael Duca to send a letter to the diocese titled, “Blessed Are The Peacemakers.”
“My words to the people were certainly, ‘We do not approve and have greater offense at the way in which our Holy Father has been portrayed as a politician, as someone who doesn't know what he's talking about,’” he said. “‘He knows exactly what he's talking about, but he's not a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ.’”
Duca mentioned Trump by name, and wrote that the president’s language is “troubling because it risks reducing the Holy Father to a partisan figure and further deepening divisions in an already fractured world.”
Duca wanted his letter to be measured and apolitical, since he was speaking to two groups with a lot of overlap. A 2020 poll by AP-NORC found that 71% of the state’s registered Catholic voters voted for Trump. In his letter, Duca wrote his best advice: “Look at the teaching of the Holy Father. That's our rock, that's our foundation. And let that word of the gospel be the thing you meditate on and reflect on.”
Like Duca, Catholic leaders all across the state have been trying to find the right words to share with their communities.
Russel Honoré, a retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen., has spent a lifetime reflecting on the gospel.
“ I grew up in a Catholic community, and every community that I know of in South Louisiana had a Catholic church,” he said.
Honoré grew up not too far from where the Pope’s family lived in Louisiana — New Orleans’ Seventh Ward, a primarily African-American and Creole, working-class neighborhood. That’s earned the Pope respect from many who still live here, Honoré said.
“I think that means a lot to the people in South Louisiana and to Catholics around the world that we got a Pope that will speak up to the moral convictions and to pray for, and to constantly preach for, peace,” he said.
Honoré — who spent 37 years in the Army — said it’s a message that should be hard to oppose. Yet some people in his circle have welcomed Trump’s harsh words during the war with Iran.
“ There are people inside our community [saying] ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad the president said that,’” he said. “You mean you wanna see the president destroy a civilization? Do you really wanna see that?”
North Louisiana Rep. Michael Echols, on the other hand, has a different perspective.
“Sometimes I think that intersect between religion and politics, they do kind of crumble together in times,” he said.
Echols, a conservative who’s running for federal office, converted to Catholicism when he married his wife. He said he believes the Pope’s message of peace and Trump’s message of peace through strength can exist simultaneously.
“ We want mankind to be kind and generous in giving, but it's not. Mankind is flawed,” he said. “And so because of that flaw, that's where those religious teachings come in… [to] help people be better people and [ask for] forgiveness when they mess up.
“But when it comes back to leading a country, I think that the strong approach and making sure we do it where people respect us.”
Though the two ideas can exist together, Echols said the friction between the Pope and the president is uncomfortable for someone whose faith and politics are so important to him.
“ It's frustrating to see two people that you might have an immense amount of respect for, and the narratives that go on in the media that twist those narratives. So instead of inflaming the fight and the narrative, I think we just ought to focus on outcomes,” he said. “We keep America strong, we say our prayers, we ask for the best that our leaders can give us. And at the end of the day, hopefully we have a better level of humanity and better outcomes at the same time.”
Or, as Duca put it in his letter: “Peace. Blessed are the peacemakers.”
