Much has been written about the blasphemous and ridiculous antics of Donald Trump in his critiques of Pope Leo. Trump has been condemned from pillar to post, as well he ought to be.

However, perhaps we should be glad that the American president has starkly revealed the difference between the Church and worldly power. Trump is not an evangelist for Christianity, but his words and self-deification may well lead people to consider why it is better to be Catholic than an ideologue of any stripe.

Trump lashed out at Pope Leo’s critique of the war with Iran, condemning him as “WEAK on crime and terrible for foreign policy.” The president’s emphasis on the word “weak” reveals what really drives him wonky about the pope’s measured criticism of Trump’s war. The greatest good for Trump is power, and the greatest threat to that supposed good is weakness.

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One does not need to dig deep into the history of philosophy to find Trump’s intellectual forebearer. That would be Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century existentialist who mocked Christianity for supporting the weak and who proclaimed, “God is dead.” Christians, Nietzsche claimed, are motivated by resentment against the strong. In his view, the strong and powerful give zest to civilization. The weak drain energy from the strong.

Nietzsche’s comment about the death of God, it should be noted, came in his later years as he descended into madness. By all accounts, Nietzsche was a gentle and generous man, the opposite of what one might expect. Nevertheless, when the main pillar of your life is that there is no pillar, it is easy to see why one might become unhinged.

In one respect, Nietzsche was right – Christianity does emphasize the value of weakness. St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians are rife with comments about the wisdom of weakness. “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong,” the apostle wrote. (2 Cor 12.10) The letters contain a couple dozen similar statements. 

St. Paul didn’t mean we should become wimps, cowering in the shadows. Of all the early Christians, he was the most outspoken. He paid for his outspokenness by constant persecution, being stoned and left for dead, and finally martyred at the centre of the empire.

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Paul, I believe, would not be a proponent of just war theory, a topic on which Trump’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, claims some expertise. Indeed, greater expertise than the Pope who he suggested needs to learn more theology before pronouncing on foreign policy. Hubris knows no bounds.

Today, we tend to view pacifism as a quirky thing, the commitment of a few radicals but one which no sensible person would endorse. However, in the early centuries of the Church, pacifism was the norm, something to which the blood of the martyrs testifies. Only when the Church became wedded to the empire did St. Augustine feel the need for a just war theory.

This is my biggest beef with a tight relationship between Church and State. It is the Church’s faith that gets distorted amidst the compromises that occur.

Correct me if I am wrong, although just war theory is included in the Catholic Catechism, there has never been a time when a pope actually declared that a war was justified. In recent times, the popes have condemned every war.

The Crusades did not receive a blessing under just war theory, but because the pope proclaimed, “God wills it.” Vance made a similar declaration about the Second World War, claiming that God was on the side of the Allied Forces. Popes, as well as politicians, ought to be ultra-careful about enlisting God’s alleged support for acts of violence. Unmistakable evidence is required.

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The Gospels are decidedly non-violent in their orientation. Indeed, non-violence is not just one moral norm arising from the Gospels, but the central one. Jesus’ teaching and witness were unequivocally opposed to even the smallest forms of violence. That recognition might lead Church leaders to recognize that the Church has no authority to advocate theories such as just war, which undermine Christ’s teaching and witness.

Today, the Church is weak. Thanks be to God. Trump claims to be strong and mocks the Pope for advocating weakness. However, people are listening to the Pope while Trump is widely regarded as unstable. On which side do you stand?