Father Bryan Massingale, professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University, appeared on MS NOW to discuss Pope Leo’s condemnation of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. He emphasized that the pope’s remarks should not be viewed through a partisan American lens, but rather as moral guidance from the leader of a global faith tradition spanning over 2,000 years.
“I think we have to back up a little bit and understand that when Pope Leo is speaking, he’s not speaking as an American. He’s speaking as the Pope. I think there are some times we kind of cast him in a partisan light, in terms of ‘it’s Pope Leo versus President Trump.’ No, it’s Pope Leo as the representative and leader of a faith tradition that is over 2,000 years old,” Father Massingale explained.
“He rooted his thought in the thought of Pope John Paul II, Pope Francis, Pope Paul VI, Pope Pius XII, and Pope John XXIII, so when he’s speaking, he’s speaking as a faith leader. And I think the reason why President Trump may be a little concerned by what Pope Leo is saying is because Pope Leo is basically calling out what he terms the misuse of religion, the idolatrous appropriation of religious faith to justify a war which, by every measure in the Catholic tradition, would be considered immoral and unjust,” said Massingale.
