By Kanishka Singh, WASHINGTON United States
U.S. President Donald Trump forcefully criticized Pope Leo late on Sunday in an unusual, direct attack on the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church that drew immediate rebuke from believers.
The president, in an apparent response to the pope's growing criticisms of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies, said Leo was "terrible".
"Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Catholics on social media quickly lambasted Trump for attacking the leader of their Church, who they believe is the successor of St. Peter, one of Jesus' 12 apostles.
"There is no ambiguity about the situation now," Massimo Faggioli, an expert on the papacy, told ourreporter.
He compared the comments to efforts by the leaders of Germany and Italy during World War Two to draw the late Pope Pius XII to support their causes.
"Not even Hitler or Mussolini attacked the pope so directly and publicly," said Faggioli.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was disheartened by Trump's comments.
"Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls,” he said in a statement.
Leo, originally from Chicago, is the first U.S. pope. Known for choosing his words carefully, he has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war in recent weeks and decried the "madness of war" on in a peace appeal on Saturday.
Last year, he questioned whether the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies were in line with the Church's pro-life teachings.
"Someone who says, 'I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States', I don't know if that's pro-life," the pontiff said in September.
Trump wrote in his post Sunday that "Leo should get his act together as Pope", later telling reporters he was "not a big fan" of the pontiff.
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