Catholic theologian: 'Conservatives are not comfortable with Trump’s faith'

Sarah K. Burris
5h

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States waves from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. Vatican Media/Francesco Sforza/Handout via REUTERS

Catholic theologian Chad Pecknold is among those questioning the legitimacy of President Donald Trump's Christianity.

Columnist Christopher Hale recalled Pecknold'sCNBC interview, in which Trump claimed to be a Presbyterian. However, he implied that Trump doesn't appear to know much about his own religion, or Christianity in general.

Pecknold asked whether Trump understood the differences between Presbyterians and Methodists, or even Presbyterians and Catholics.

He said, “Conservatives are not comfortable with his faith. They’re not convinced at all that he’s a genuine person of Christian faith."

Trump "talks about the eucharist as a little wine and a bit of cracker," said Pecknold. "He doesn't know how Christians speak about the Bible... It's legitimate to ask what kind of Christian is he?"

It's all part of the acceleration in the feud between Trump and the Pope,

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was dispatched to the Vatican in an effort to smooth over weeks of diplomatic missteps by Trump’s administration in its dealings with Pope Leo.

The administration’s recent string of flubs began when Trump took personal offense at the pope’s call for global peace. They escalated after a tense clash with a Vatican official at the Defense Department. Now it has triggered a firestorm of bad press and deepened Trump’s political troubles as conservative opposition grows.

The situation worsened when Trump publicly teased a Cuba as the “next” target after Iran, only to meet firm resistance from the pope, who refused to endorse an attack on the heavily Catholic island. The Vatican’s readout of Rubio’s meeting explicitly cited disagreements with the United States, especially over Cuba, and Catholic commentators have made clear that the Holy See will not bless what they call Trump’s “war to ‘Take Cuba,’” including campaigns that weaponize humanitarian aid or impose sanctions that hurt poor Cubans.

On Wednesday, Trump's administration is expected to announce charges against Raúl Castro, the deputy of the National Assembly of the People's Power of Cuba and the brother of Fidel Castro. It's setting off alarm bells because the process is similar to Trump's efforts to arrest Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro.

Hale wrote that if Pope Leo wasn't clear enough in person, his emissaries said the Vatican would not support a war, particularly against the poor people of Cuba.

Trump bragged in March that he would soon have “the honor of taking Cuba.” Last week, he implied that Cuba is on his invasion list and he may not be able to wait to go after Cuba, though Republicans likely want to wait until after the midterm elections in November.

"During his homily, Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny made it clear the Vatican will not bless the Trump administration's campaign to 'Take Cuba' — no humanitarian aid as a tool of regime change, no sanctions that punish the poor," wrote Hale.

The event where Czerny spoke was hosted by the Cuban embassy.

Czerny told them, “Pope Leo XIV, in his recent appeals to the international community, has reminded us that no stable order can arise from the force of arms or from pressure that humiliates peoples; human development, on the other hand, grows through dialogue, international law, cooperation between nations and the safeguarding of the dignity of every human being. In the same spirit, humanitarian aid should arrive in sufficient quantities and without hindrance and must never be exploited for political or geopolitical ends."

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