Troubled relations: Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump

Depending on which historical sources you care to consult, the Pope has been a figure of obloquy, ridicule and abomination.  This mediator between the terrestrial and the divine was always set for the battering.  Martin Luther’s violent Protestant split from the body of the Catholic Church was merely one aspect of attacking the occupants of that office.  Acrimonious disputes between the secular arm of the State and Church power have also figured.  In the 11th century, Pope Gregory VII famously battled the Holy Roman Emperor King Henry IV in the Investiture Controversy over who had the power to appoint bishops. Pope Leo XIV, for his part, has become increasingly perturbed by President Donald Trump’s metamorphosis from an alleged eschewer of […]