{"id":164744,"date":"2026-04-13T19:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/164744\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:44:09","slug":"diocese-of-scranton-bishop-saddened-dismayed-over-trumps-comments-about-pope-ai-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/164744\/","title":{"rendered":"Diocese of Scranton bishop ‘saddened,’ ‘dismayed’ over Trump’s comments about pope, AI image"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bishop of the Diocese of Scranton is “saddened” by critical comments President Donald Trump made about Pope Leo XIV and “dismayed” by the AI-generated image posted by the president that seemingly portrays him in the place of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera issued a statement<\/a> Monday after Trump called the pope \u201cweak\u201d and \u201cterrible\u201d in a post on social media, and then posted \u2014 and later deleted \u2014 the image of himself appearing to anoint the sick.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump posted, and later deleted, this AI-generated image on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Bambera quotes the pope’s words from Saturday’s Prayer Vigil for Peace, saying the pope spoke from the heart of the gospel: \u201cWar divides; hope unites. Arrogance tramples upon others; love lifts up. Idolatry blinds us; the living God enlightens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am praying for the president, that he may be guided by wisdom, humility and a sincere pursuit of peace,\u201d Bambera said in his statement. \u201cI am also praying for Pope Leo that he may be strengthened to continue speaking boldly for peace and justice, even in the face of criticism \u2026 Blessed are the peacemakers!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments came after the pope last week urged him to end the war in Iran and criticized the president’s threats to \u201cwipe out\u201d Iranian civilization.<\/p>\n

In a post on Truth Social late Sunday, Trump called the pope \u201cWEAK on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for Foreign Policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want a Pope who thinks it\u2019s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don\u2019t want a Pope who thinks it\u2019s terrible that America attacked Venezuela,\u201d the post<\/a> reads in part. \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. It\u2019s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it\u2019s hurting the Catholic Church!\u201d<\/p>\n

The pope responded to the comments, saying he did not fear the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump deleted the image of himself wearing a biblical-style robe on Monday, claiming he thought the image depicted himself as a doctor.<\/p>\n

The Diocese of Allentown shared a statement<\/a> on Facebook issued by Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: \u201cI am disheartened that the president chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bishop of the Diocese of Scranton is “saddened” by critical comments President Donald Trump made about Pope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-164744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}