Pope Leo XIV says he has no intention of getting involved in U.S. politics but will raise his voice on issues of concern to the Catholic Church, including on immigration.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) September 18, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Weak sauce by our standards, but there’s a lot of Tradcaths (many of them Protestant converts) who are gonna to… be very unhappy.
Some of those liable to be most unhappy are embedded in the Oval Office Occupation, including the SC(R)OTUS Sinister Six:
… Leo spoke on a range of topics — from the Trump administration to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, welcoming LGBTQ+ Catholics and Vatican-China relations — in the interview, published Thursday. It was conducted by Vatican correspondent Elise Ann Allen of the news site Crux for a biography of Leo that was published Thursday in Peru, where Leo was bishop for many years.
Here are some highlights:
Welcoming the LGBTQ+ community
Leo embraced Pope Francis’ message for LGBTQ+ Catholics that “todos, todos, todos” are welcome in the Catholic Church but said that he found “it highly unlikely” the church’s core doctrine about sexuality would change anytime soon…Earlier this month, the Vatican hosted a Holy Year pilgrimage that included several LGBTQ+ Catholic groups. On Thursday, traditionalist Catholic groups announced a petition asking Leo to “confirm and reaffirm the perennial teaching of the church” on sexuality “in the face of the brazen offensive of those who demand the moral legitimization of homosexual relationships and unions.”…
Sex abuse scandals
Leo said the sex abuse crisis is “a real crisis” that has not yet been solved, and that the church still hasn’t found a way to help victims heal. But he also said the rights of priests must be respected.“Statistics show that well over 90% of people who come forward and make accusations, they are authentically victims. They are telling the truth. They are not making this up,” he said. “But there have also been proven cases of some kind of false accusation. There have been priests whose lives have been destroyed because of that.”…
Trump and US politics
Leo said he recognized the influence of the United States on world affairs and mentioned migration as one of the issue important to the Catholic Church.He recalled a letter Francis sent to U.S. bishops earlier this year rebuking the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants. The letter took direct aim at Vice President JD Vance’s defense of the deportation program on theological grounds.
Leo praised Francis’ initiative and said U.S. bishops showed “courage” in confronting the administration, expressing hopes they would continue to take the lead on such issues…
“The United States is a power player on the world level, we have to recognize that, and sometimes decisions are made more based on economics than on human dignity and human support, but (we have to) continue to challenge and to raise some questions and to see the best way to do that,” Leo said…
******
This way they can exploit Trump’s senility. They can come out of the meeting and say “we got an agreement from the president on whatever” and maybe even get Trump to say it publicly before Congressional Repubs can tell him no.
Then when Trump reneges they could say “the President isn’t in charge”— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) September 20, 2025 at 11:10 PM
