The US president Donald Trump is considered a defender of faith, a choice of God, but for the late Pope Francis he was not a Christian. His immigration policy said more about him than his words, he thought the pontiff.
The Argentine did not look around, not even in front of illustrious people.
In 2016 he intervened at a distance in the presidential campaign with a comment about the then candidate Trump: a person who wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian.
The millionaire, who later promised to erect a wall along the border with Mexico, described the comment of “scandalous.”
On Monday, after the death of the Pope at age 88, Trump published a brief message on his social truth platform: “Rest in peace, Pope Francis! God bless him, as well as to all who loved him.”
He later announced to have ordered that the flags wave at half -mast in public buildings in honor of the Pope, whom he described as a “good man”, and plans to attend the funeral with the first lady.
Vice President JD Vance, who became Catholicism in 2019 and met with the head of the Catholic Church on Sunday, was also concise in his tribute: “My heart is with the millions of Christians worldwide who loved him. I was glad to see him yesterday, although he was obviously very sick,” he wrote on the social network X.
Trump, who defines himself as a Christian, affirmed on the day of his investiture that God “saved” him of an attempt to kill a general decay of the United States.
He has created an “office of faith” in the White House and recently published a photo in which he is seen praying in the oval office, surrounded by evangelical spiritual guides.
Theology lesson
Francisco, who received Trump in the Vatican during his first term in 2017 for a half -hour interview, criticized him for his antimigrant positions.
After the return of the Republican to power on January 20, the Jesuit, great defender of the excluded, kept the criticism.
The expulsion of “people who, in many cases, have abandoned their countries for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, threatens the dignity of many men and women,” he lamented in an unusual letter addressed to US bishops and published by the Vatican.
“I would like it to focus on the Catholic Church and let us take care of the borders,” said Tom Homan, to whom Trump commissioned to orchestrate a large -scale deportation policy and that, like JD Vance or American spokesman Karoline Leavitt, she claims to be a Catholic.
In his letter, Francisco also requested “an open fraternity to all, without exception”, leaving aside “personal, community or national identity.”
Many commentators have interpreted it as a theological lesson for Vance, who invokes a precept of Catholic doctrine called Ordo Amoris – “Order of Love” – to justify antimigration policy, stating that Christian charity must first benefit those closest to oneself, and not to foreigners.
The conflict between the Trump administration and the Catholic clergy has also reached the courts: the United States Episcopal Conference has challenged the cessation of the financing of refugee support programs managed by the Church.
On the street, Christians cry to the Pope
“I really liked to support migrants,” Heidi told AFP, in the US capital. The woman, who does not want to give her last name, says she feels “a deep sadness.”
“Pope Francis was much more Christian than many others, for example, those who are in power today and say Christians, including the president, whose name I will not say,” said Mark Smerkanich, in front of Washington’s cathedral.