For the love of God, Pope Leo, you are the Pope, it's time to speak like it

A strong America is good for the world. A strong Church is good for the world. Maybe God has called you in this time, this very specific time, because that is your mission

May 02, 2026

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Few things are “unprecedented” which is a favorite adjective of politicians in an attempt to add gravitas to the routine and mundane. “Wall Street launched an unprecedented lobbying attack to…(blah blah blah,” shrieked Senator Elizabeth Warren recently at a Banking Committee hearing.

Ah, yes, the unprecedented, the never-before seen, the unicorn, of… Wall Street lobbying.

Most of our life has a precedent. Much of the news cycle is a rinse and repeat, but one event this year is: an American Pope.

And Pope Leo the American, needs to figure it out.

How does a man from the most powerful nation on earth sine qua non transcend it to become Pope for the entire world? The Church is accustomed to Italians, though there has not been an Italian pope in nearly half a century. Saint Pope John Paul II was Polish. Fun. Pope Benedict was Bavarian. Great. Pope Francis was Argentinian. Yikes. Pope Leo… American? The guys who run the world? The guys who own the world? That has some heft. That carries deep cultural and geopolitical connotations. An American Pope is… unprecedented.

It would have been easier for the world if he were Canadian, the turkey on white bread with mayo of the sandwich world. Totally fine… safe. Good. Predictable. Uneventful.

The world does not need an eventful Pope. Leo seems to be soft spoken, pensive, kind, and reserved. Those are wonderful, qualities. Now, may he learn to be… quiet.

Holy Father, with all due respect from a life-long (though struggling and alienated) Catholic, stay in your lane. Your ongoing feud with the American President is not helpful.

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The Pope cannot opine on every world issue. No one can. The world is too big, and the issues are too vast. There are 130 ongoing conflicts across the globe right now. Ukraine, for a while, seemed to get all the attention, but the Gaza / Palestine people never seem to shut up. But here’s one where an estimated 10,000 people have been massacred, and another 600,000 displaced: the civil war in Mali.

This is probably the first you have even heard of it. The Pope has yet to comment, and he was just in Africa for 11 days.

And because of this, because of the vastness of the world and the ubiquity of evil, the Pope needs to be careful about his wartime opinions.

The Church was relatively quiet when Iran slaughtered 30,000 people in January of this year. The Church was relatively quiet the last few years as Iran fomented terrorism via Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, and for the sake of argument, I will give Leo the same pass as Mali: too much going on, not enough hours in the day, to opine on everything.

He cannot take the bait and opine now because this one is “bigger”. It’s all big. Every life is sacred. Every injustice is wrong. Every evil must be battled. The Pope cannot pick and choose which wars to oppose less people assume those passed over matter less. They all matter.

It was reported that Obama’s political advisor David Axelrod and an “entourage” had an audience with the Pope the day before his criticisms of President Trump began. That was a bad move. A very bad one. And whomever on his staff allowed that meeting to go through should be fired. Their job is to protect the Pope from these types of meeting, from the semblance of impropriety, from worldly agenda, and they failed him.

Popes are not allowed such mistakes.

The Pope made himself a political figure by meeting with political operatives and making political statements. When he told Americans to “contact your congressman” he gave a political call to action. When he said Trump’s actions in Iran “violates international law” he offered an appeal to political hierarchy. And, the bad optics part, no such comments were made about the other 130 ongoing conflicts. Which means the Pope is picking and choosing, making a political calculation.

This is not good. For the love of God, Pope, you are the Pope, now. Time to speak like it.

“Trump started it”. Eh, Trump starts a lot of things, and he finishes them. We know who Trump is, it’s gotten him elected three times (see what I did there?) and Trump’s trumpism has made him the most popular (and most hated) political figure in modern history. And Trump, though not always in his life, but certainly now, IS a politician. He is the president. Political calculations are his job. Words are his currency.

Do we want the American president to say “Yes, Pope” and apologize? No. In just the same way the papacy is weakened when the Pope acts political, the presidency would be weakened would the president act deferential.

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So, what is a Pope to do?

Elevate. Elevate the matter to God, where it belongs. Elevate the matter to His justice and mercy, to original sin as the root of all evil. Elevate the matter to a call for peace rooted in truth, not a call to a Congressman to register opposition.

Suffer. Suffer the silence of your inability to act like an American and spout off your opinions. Suffer for the souls lost in war and death. Suffer for the injustices of man against man, where despite 2000 years of Emmanuel – God with us – the world seems incapable of acting Godlike.

Pray. Lead prayers and calls for prayer. Ask school children to pray The Angelus at noon, like I did in school as a child. Ask Churches to pray every Sunday for peace. Give an example of prayer by praying publicly and perpetually.

And be quiet. You do not know the details of this war, and I’m guessing the Vatican’s central intelligence is just three rotund nuns guarding a pasta recipe. Accept that there are things, ungodly things, that you do not want to know, and so you you elevate, you suffer, you pray, and remain silent.

That is what we need from every Pope, not just the first – unprecedented – American one.

Final note, Holy Father, as I’m sure you’re reading this (heck, I get nearly a million readers, it’s not impossible): a strong America is good for the world. A strong Church is good for the world. Maybe God has called you in this time, this very specific time, because that is your mission: to be the American Pope, the Pope of strength, of might, of power, of freedom, of righteousness. Maybe God has called you, in this time, this very specific time, to Make Catholicism Great Again, to make the Church strong again, to make Christ reign again.

Maybe the reason why the Church has not conquered the world, maybe the reason why Pax Americana has not brought order to the world, is that we have never had the two most powerful people on earth, the Pope and the President, be American.

You do now. An American Pope and an American president with millions of American Catholics and Christians eager to build the kingdom of Christ.

Now, that, Holy Father… would be unprecedented.

Honor and courage.

Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. He also runs a sheep and cattle farm in rural Virginia. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF

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