OK, I know, it sounds crazy. But think about it. Both our nation and the Catholic Church are facing enormous, survival-threatening problems. Both the U.S. president and the new pope have been chosen by their electors to find a way to lead us out of that desert. For both, it’s their last hurrah. What’s to lose? And are not the potential benefits immense?
At first blush, Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump seem as different as night and day — one has sainthood pretty much in the bag, the other is widely considered, at least by his political enemies, to be inherently evil. But they have more in common than you might think. Consider:
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They speak the same language. And they share the same American heritage. Leo is the first American pope, and there has never before been a pope whose first language is English.
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They have common constituents. There are about 1.4 billion Catholics in the world, including about 70 million Americans. More importantly, both exert enormous influence on the future of mankind in our fragile, fraught world.
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Both seem to be outside-the-box thinkers. Certainly, that is the case with Trump (pegging Canada as our 51st state, as one obvious example), and by reputation, so is the new Pope Leo. Reportedly, his election was driven by the desire among the electors (136 Catholic cardinals) to break away from the long-term bureaucratic Vatican insiders.
Are they even remotely aligned in their thinking? At this point, we don’t know much about Pope Leo. But there are indications that the cardinals who supported him in last week’s conclave saw him as a leader who would tend to the same social justice issues as his predecessor, but would be less ideological and more pragmatic in doing so. Something of a populist, perhaps?
If so, that actually sounds a lot like Donald Trump. And somehow — despite the current media narrative regarding growing international revulsion of the “Ugly American” (with Trump the ugliest of all) — the Catholic world seemed thrilled at the cardinals’ choice for the new pope. The crowd in St. Peter’s Square was alive with cheers, jubilance, and flag-waving.
Could it be that the world doesn’t hate us after all? Could it be that there are many in this world who realize that we are living on borrowed time, headed for collapse (pick one: economic implosion, mutual nuclear annihilation, destruction of the environment, and others), unless we get our collective act together? If so, that suggests an all-hands-on-deck reaction with international leaders (of both church and state) collaborating more effectively.
And what might effective collaboration of the U.S. president and the head of the Catholic Church look like? It would have no religious component at all — just highly visible, thoughtful interactions on matters of high interest. Certainly, they would not expect to agree on every detail. But clear alignment on principles would send an enormously powerful message to Christians everywhere and to the world at large.
That would be a sharp departure from recent history. Leo’s predecessor, the late Pope Francis, was sharply critical of the Trump administration’s aggressive actions to close our southern border and to deport illegal aliens. Francis was passionately pro-immigration, and he conveyed little interest in the fundamental distinction between the legal and illegal variety or the threat posed to a civilized society (including those on the bottom rung) by the criminal element of the latter.
As both a Catholic and a conservative, my discomfort with Pope Francis was that he was highly selective in his criticism; he seemed eager to support the political left where convenient, and particularly the plight of migrants, legal or not, while remaining relatively unconcerned about the Left’s all-in support for abortion on demand. At the time, I kept imagining that a candid, courteous conversation between our newly elected president and the aging pontiff would have gone a long way toward resolving those obvious inconsistencies.
That never happened, but now there is a new Catholic sheriff in town, one relatively free to carve his own course. In fact, both our president and the new pope are free agents. Neither will ever face another election. Yes, both must consider the expectations of their supporters. But as they move forward, the evolving challenges they (and we) face will take on new dimensions, which may drive them in unexpected directions.
Just for starters, the visible interaction and apolitical agreement in principle on multiple issues — a real-life example of world leaders finding common ground — would boost the confidence of citizens in all corners of the world that we’re headed in the right direction. And moving on, it might open the door to a more collaborative and sensible track on climate change, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, nuclear weapons safety, and the like.
This column is not a prediction; it’s just personal conjecture. I’ve no idea if a meeting of the minds between two very different leaders is even in the cards. But the opportunities are boundless. Go for it!
