{"id":196067,"date":"2026-04-13T22:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196067\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T22:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:25:08","slug":"nyc-catholic-leaders-react-to-president-trumps-shocking-social-media-statement-against-pope-leo-xiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196067\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Catholic leaders react to President Trump\u2019s shocking social media statement against Pope Leo XIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump\u2019s stunning Sunday night social media post attacking Pope Leo XIV and his beliefs following the pontiff\u2019s criticism over the war in Iran evoked a curious response among Catholic leaders in New York.<\/p>\n

Catholic leadership in New York was somewhat split in its response to the conflict on Monday, with more progressive figures like Archbishop Ronald Hicks appearing to side firmly with Pope Leo \u2014 and more conservative groups like the Catholic League<\/a> attempting to take both sides at the same time.<\/p>\n

President of the Catholic League Bill Donohue criticized both leaders in a statement Monday, calling out Leo for not fully appreciating the \u201cnecessity of \u2018just wars\u2019\u201d and rebuking Trump for being \u201coffensive and immature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will no doubt be occasions where the pope and the president will continue to make public their disagreements,\u201d Donohue said. \u201cBut there are so many other issues, such as religious liberty, where the two share a common interest. Let\u2019s pray the latter prove to be controlling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Archbishop Ronald Hicks, appointed in December to replace Cardinal Timothy Dolan, reposted Archbishop of Oklahoma City, Rev. Paul S. Coakley, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops\u2019 (USCCB) statement on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father,\u201d Coakley said. \u201cPope 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Archbishop Coakley, for your strong statement!\u201d Hicks said, quoting Coakley\u2019s statement.
\n\"ArchbishopArchbishop Ronald Hicks sitting on altar with crozier moments after officially becoming the 11th archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York at St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral on Feb. 6, 2026.Photo by Dean Moses\n<\/p>\n

But the Archdiocese of New York has not yet issued a formal statement and has not yet responded to amNewYork\u2019s request for comment. The same could be said for Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, who also has not yet issued a statement.<\/p>\n

Together, the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn represent 4.1 million Catholics in New York City\u2019s five boroughs.\n<\/p>\n

President Trump took to Truth Social Sunday evening to vent<\/a> about the pontiff in a lengthy post, criticizing the new leader of the Catholic faith for being \u201cweak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tirade followed Pope Leo XIV\u2019s Saturday evening prayer service at St. Peter\u2019s Basilica, during which the pontiff expressed exasperation for war and idolatry.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough of the idolatry of self and money!\u201d Leo said. \u201cEnough of the display of power! Enough of war!\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Even without directly naming and shaming President Trump himself, the American-born Pope\u2019s message appeared aimed at Washington.\n<\/p>\n

Sunday night, the president fired back with an unprecedented attack by a sitting American president against the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics around the world; an estimated 70 million Catholics live in America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLeo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The State\u2019s Catholic governor, Kathy Hochul, has also not formally commented on the dispute yet, although she has been outspoken about the President\u2019s perceived mockery of the Catholic faith in the past. In May of 2025, following the death of Pope Francis,<\/a> she called an AI generated image of the president dressed as the Pope that was posted to the White House\u2019s social media, \u201cdeeply offensive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the backlash of Trump\u2019s AI-generated, Papal aspirations apparently didn\u2019t make much of an impression, as the president proceeded to share another AI-generated image of himself, depicted in red and white robes in a style similar to images of Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"InIn a now deleted post on Truth Social, Donald Trump depicted himself in an AI-generated image in red and white robes in what was widely seen as a Jesus-like image. But Trump maintained that the image was supposed to show him as \u201ca doctor.\u201dCredit: @<\/p>\n

The image has since been taken down, and Trump claimed that he didn\u2019t intend to compare himself to Christ.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s supposed to be as a doctor making people better,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I do make people better. I make people a lot better.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

But the president stood firmly in his criticism of Pope Leo, refusing to apologize when asked by reporters on Monday.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to apologize for,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe\u2019s wrong.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Leo has consistently called for de-escalation, urging dialogue and warning that war cannot be justified through appeals to faith.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no fear, neither of the Trump administration, nor of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I believe I am called here to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump\u2019s stunning Sunday night social media post attacking Pope Leo XIV and his beliefs following the pontiff\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[54568,5555,78194,4840,78195,78196,23130,153,63309,9,78197,56,63,65,64,78198,5638,78199,29290,78200],"class_list":{"0":"post-196067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-archbishop-ronald-hicks","9":"tag-archdiocese-of-new-york","10":"tag-bill-donohue","11":"tag-catholic-church","12":"tag-catholic-league","13":"tag-church-and-state-conflict","14":"tag-diocese-of-brooklyn","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-iran-war","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-catholic-leaders","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-nyc-headlines","22":"tag-nyc-news","23":"tag-paul-s-coakley","24":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","25":"tag-religious-tensions","26":"tag-truth-social","27":"tag-usccb"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}