{"id":166552,"date":"2026-04-15T14:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T14:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/166552\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T14:50:07","slug":"phillys-catholic-church-stands-by-pope-leo-amid-trump-barbs-archbishop-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/166552\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly\u2019s Catholic church ‘stands by’ Pope Leo amid Trump barbs, archbishop says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archbishop Nelson P\u00e9rez said Philadelphia\u2019s Catholic church<\/a> \u201cstands by\u201d Pope Leo XIV, as the global religious leader continues to face attacks from President Donald Trump<\/a> over the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

Trump, in a post Sunday night to his Truth Social platform<\/a>, described Leo as \u201cWEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.\u201d The pontiff has repeatedly called for peace, and he was critical of Trump\u2019s threat to eradicate Iranian civilization.<\/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 wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it\u2019s hurting the Catholic Church!\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Leo, a 1977 graduate of Villanova University and the first American-born pope<\/a>, told reporters that he is not afraid of Trump or \u201cof speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez, in a statement late Monday afternoon, did not mention the president but said Leo\u2019s \u201ccontinued calls for peace, hope, diplomacy, and the conversions of hearts should be heeded by all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPope Leo XIV has consistently spoken with clarity and compassion with calls for peaceful resolutions to complex challenges in a manner that upholds the sanctity and dignity of all human life as our world continues to be afflicted with division, conflict, and suffering,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth the Holy Father and his message deserve respect and admiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile many expect political messages from the Vicar of Christ, it is his role to preach the Gospel of peace and the role of political leaders to secure the most efficient end to world conflict and division.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tPope Leo XIV,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Archbishop Nelson Perez,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Donald Trump,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Vatican,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Catholic Church Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Iran war,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t papal response,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Villanova University pope,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t US politics religion,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t church response Trump,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t global conflict diplomacy,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Philadelphia archbishop statement\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archbishop Nelson P\u00e9rez said Philadelphia\u2019s Catholic church \u201cstands by\u201d Pope Leo XIV, as the global religious leader continues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[822,75082,75086,34,75087,59042,75083,69,75088,71,70,1841,75085,24831,75084],"class_list":{"0":"post-166552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-archbishop-nelson-perez","9":"tag-catholic-church-philadelphia","10":"tag-church-response-trump","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-global-conflict-diplomacy","13":"tag-iran-war","14":"tag-papal-response","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-philadelphia-archbishop-statement","17":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","18":"tag-philadelphia-news","19":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","20":"tag-us-politics-religion","21":"tag-vatican","22":"tag-villanova-university-pope"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166552","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=166552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}