SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The Bishop of Scranton is speaking out after a recent social media post by former President Donald Trump involving Pope Leo XIV, expressing disappointment and calling for unity and respect.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Most Rev. Joseph Bambera said he was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by comments made by the president about the pope. He also took issue with an AI-generated image that had been shared and later deleted, which appeared to depict Trump in a religious context.<\/p>\n
“I was deeply saddened to read comments posted by the President about the Holy Father, and likewise dismayed when seeing an AI-generated image, also posted by the President but then later deleted, that seemingly portrays him in the place of Jesus Christ.”<\/p>\n
Trump acknowledged posting the picture, telling reporters he thought it was “me as a doctor”.<\/p>\n
Bambera pointed to remarks made by Pope Leo XIV during a recent prayer vigil for peace, highlighting the pope\u2019s message of unity and compassion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWar divides; hope unites. Arrogance tramples upon others; love lifts up,\u201d the pope said during the vigil.<\/p>\n
The bishop said those words reflect the core teachings of the Gospel and stand in contrast to rhetoric that he believes fosters division.<\/p>\n
Bambera added that he is praying for both leaders \u2014 asking that Trump be guided by \u201cwisdom, humility and a sincere pursuit of peace,\u201d and that Pope Leo XIV remain strong in his efforts to promote justice and reconciliation.<\/p>\n
He concluded his statement with a message drawn from scripture: \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The controversy comes amid ongoing tensions between political figures and religious leaders, as public discourse continues to intersect with faith and social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The Bishop of Scranton is speaking out after a recent social media post…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-164788","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\/164788","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=164788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}