{"id":19886,"date":"2025-10-04T08:34:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T07:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=19886"},"modified":"2025-10-04T08:34:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T07:34:44","slug":"cancel-not-pope-leo-faces-maga-ire-after-immigration-and-climate-change-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/04\/cancel-not-pope-leo-faces-maga-ire-after-immigration-and-climate-change-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancel Not: Pope Leo faces MAGA ire after immigration and climate change remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pope Leo XIV has adopted a more low-key, less combative style to his predecessor in the early months of his papacy. Pope Francis\u2019s openness to the LGBTQ community, advocacy for migrants and critiques of unrestrained capitalism saw him run up against strong conservative opposition inside and outside the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo, after gently dipping his toe into the US political fray, is now facing criticism from similar quarters to Francis. The opposition is coming from conservative Catholics in the US and MAGA supporters, some of whom, after Leo\u2019s election, had hoped he would take the church in a different direction from Pope Francis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first American pope was asked on Tuesday about plans by the cardinal in Leo\u2019s home city of Chicago to give an award to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of Senate Democratic leadership. Cardinal Blase Cupich, an ally and friend of the pope, was planning to give Durbin a \u201cLifetime Achievement Award for\u202fsupport\u202fto\u202fimmigrants,\u201d but the move faced a backlash given Durbin\u2019s support for abortion rights. Durbin decided to refuse the honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unusually, around 10 US bishops even spoke out publicly against the award<\/a>. Two of those who did \u2013 Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Bishop Thomas Paprocki \u2013 were both appointed a religious liberty advisory body by US President Donald Trump<\/a> and had been at odds with decisions made by Francis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than condemn the award, Leo said it was important to look at Durbin\u2019s \u201c40 years of service in the United States Senate.\u201d The pope then said that it\u2019s \u201cnot really pro-life\u201d to oppose abortion and support the death penalty, while also questioning whether it was \u201cpro-life\u201d to support the \u201cinhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo\u2019s comments were immediately criticized. One conservative Catholic described it as \u201cdisappointing\u201d and \u201clargely irrelevant\u201d,<\/a> right-wing political commentator Matt Walsh said it was a \u201cterrible answer from Pope Leo\u201d<\/a> and Jack Posobiec, an influencer who is supportive of Trump, posted on X simply: \u201cSome popes are a blessing. Some popes are a penance.\u201d<\/a> Joseph Strickland, the outspoken retired bishop of Tyler, Texas<\/a>, said Leo\u2019s remarks had created \u201cmuch confusion\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pope Leo XIV attends the International Conference “Raising Hope for Climate Justice” on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Encyclical Laudato Si’ at Mariapolis Center in Castel Gandolfo on October 01, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day after, however, Leo generated more MAGA opposition when he took part in climate conference where<\/a> he called for action on protecting the planet and blessed some ice. It all comes during a period when Leo had a private meeting with Reverend James Martin, a leading advocate for LGBTQ Catholics, spoke up against the \u201cpandemic of arms\u201d<\/a> following the Minnesota school shooting and criticised huge CEO salaries and singling out Elon Musk.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is the Chicago-born pontiff positioning his papacy as a counterbalance to the Trump administration? Along with his comments about abortion and immigration, he described Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s recent speech to generals as \u201cworrying\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s open to helping and dialoguing with him. He wants to be an interlocutor,\u201d she said. \u201cHis remarks are aimed at Catholics and what he\u2019s saying is there is a \u2018consistent life ethic\u2019. Yes, abortion is wrong but being pro-life respects human dignity in all its forms, whether it concerns the death penalty or immigrants. Being from the United States, Leo is aware that the term \u2018pro-life\u2019 is often pigeon-holed into abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elise Ann Allen, who recently interviewed Leo for her biography of the pope for her book \u201cLeo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the XXI Century,\u201d said Leo does not want to be \u201canti-Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some Catholics abortion is the \u201cpre-eminent\u201d issue, while they question Francis\u2019 decision to update church teaching and make the death penalty \u201cinadmissible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis\u2019 critics hoped that Leo\u2019s distinct style \u2013 such as his decision to wear the red mozzetta cape after his election \u2013 might signal a course correction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConservative Catholics had hoped that Pope Francis\u2019 reforms would follow him into the tomb, that the universal church would view his papacy the way they did, as a bit of bad weather that had finally and thankfully passed,\u201d Michael Sean Winters, a Catholic commentator, wrote in the National Catholic Reporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week they were disappointed. Leo has shown he will, like Francis, try and avoid the culture wars. He doesn\u2019t want to fuel any polarization. \u201cThey are very complex issues, and I don\u2019t know if anyone has all the truth\u202fon them,\u201d the Pope pointed out when asked about Durbin\u2019s award. Leo will also speak up, when necessary, particularly on the treatment of immigrants, an issue close to his heart from his time as a bishop in Peru. While Leo\u2019s aim is to be a peacemaker his intervention this week show he\u2019s unafraid to face opposition when drawing lines on where the church stands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV has adopted a more low-key, less combative style to his predecessor in the early months of his papacy. Pope Francis\u2019s openness to the LGBTQ community, advocacy for migrants and critiques of unrestrained capitalism saw him run up against strong conservative opposition inside and outside the church. Leo, after gently dipping his toe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-15.png?fit=1202%2C801&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19889,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19886\/revisions\/19889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}