Catholic Leaders Criticize Trump Over AI Picture of Him as Pope

An unusual conflict between the President of the United States and Catholic leaders has surfaced.  It began last Wednesday with what, according to National Catholic Reporter, was seen as a humorous remark by President Trump to reporters:

"I'd like to be pope. That would be my number one choice," the president joked, before endorsing his friend, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan for the Catholic Church's top job.

Then on Friday, Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account and his X (formerly Twitter) account this AI generated photo of himself dressed as the Pope. It was also re-posted on the White House's X (formerly Twitter) account.

According to National Catholic Reporter in an article today:

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing a firestorm of criticism from leaders of the Roman Catholic Church after posting on social media a computer-generated image of himself as pope in full papal regalia as Catholics worldwide continue to mourn Pope Francis....

On social media, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, said Trump owes an apology to Catholics.

"This is deeply offensive to Catholics especially during this sacred time that we are still mourning the death of Pope Francis and praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the election of our new Pope," Paprocki wrote.

Paprocki quoted a Bible verse from Galatians that admonishes, "God is not mocked." He said, "By publishing a picture of himself masquerading as the Pope, President Trump mocks God, the Catholic Church, and the Papacy."

The New York State Catholic Conference said on X there is "nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President. We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us."

In Rome, Dolan, the archbishop of New York, was stopped by reporters and asked about it. "I hope he didn’t have anything to do with that," Dolan said in a video posted on social media by a multimedia journalist for the New York Archdiocese. 

"Are you offended by that?" a journalist asked. 

Dolan paused and replied, "It wasn’t good." He repeated that in Italian for Roman journalists and laughed nervously....

A Catholic News Service article quoting Cardinal Dolan was posted today on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Convicted Cardinal Claims Eligibility to Vote for New Pope

In the Vatican, an unusual legal dispute has surfaced over the eligibility of the former deputy Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, to vote at the upcoming Conclave to select a new Pope.  Article 36 of Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis on the Vacancy of the Apostolic See and the Election of the Roman Pontiff provides:

A Cardinal of Holy Roman Church ... has the right to elect the Pope, in accordance with the norm of No. 33 of the present Constitution....On the other hand, Cardinals who have been canonically deposed or who with the consent of the Roman Pontiff have renounced the cardinalate do not have this right....

According to the National Catholic Register yesterday: 

[Becciu] lost all cardinal privileges in September 2020 after Vatican prosecutors presented Pope Francis with findings from an investigation into alleged financial crimes. 

As a consequence, Pope Francis required him to resign ... his position at that time, and “the rights connected to the cardinalate.” He duly agreed to comply, retaining the title of cardinal while being stripped of the rights and privileges associated with the office.

...  In 2021, he became the first cardinal to ever be tried by the Vatican’s criminal court.

In 2023, the court convicted the cardinal of embezzlement, aggravated fraud, and abuse of office.... He has always maintained his innocence and is currently appealing against the conviction through the Vatican’s Court of Appeal, which began hearings last October but has yet to give a ruling. 

Pope Francis invited Cardinal Becciu to attend a consistory in August 2022, an invitation that was described as a “private act of pastoral mercy” but not a step toward his rehabilitation or reinstatement of his cardinalatial rights. 

But speaking Tuesday, Cardinal Becciu gave that 2022 invitation as a reason for his eligibility to vote, saying that it showed “the Pope recognized that my cardinal prerogatives remain intact.”

Trump Nominates Brian Burch as Ambassador to the Vatican

Yesterday, President Donald Trump formally submitted to Congress the nomination of Brian Burch to be U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Burch is President of CatholicVote. According to Catholic News Agency, last December Trump announced on Truth Social that he intended to nominate Burch for the position. CNA's report in December said in part:

CatholicVote is a political advocacy group that endorsed Trump in January and ran advertisements in support the president-elect during his campaign. According to CatholicVote, the organization spent over $10 million on the 2024 elections.

Vatican Releases Declaration on Human Dignity

 On April 8, the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published a Declaration on Human Dignity, “Dignitas Infinita" (full text).  An introduction to the Declaration by the Prefect of the Dicastery says in part:

The five-year course of the text’s preparation helps us to understand that the document before us reflects the gravity and centrality of the theme of dignity in Christian thought. The text required a considerable process of maturation to arrive at the final version that we have published today.

In its initial three sections, the Declaration recalls fundamental principles and theoretical premises, with the goal of offering important clarifications that can help avoid frequent confusion that surrounds the use of the term “dignity.” The fourth section presents some current and problematic situations in which the immense and inalienable dignity due to every human being is not sufficiently recognized. The Church sees the condemnation of these grave and current violations of human dignity as a necessary measure, for she sustains the deep conviction that we cannot separate faith from the defense of human dignity, evangelization from the promotion of a dignified life, and spirituality from a commitment to the dignity of every human being.

The items described at length in the fourth section as "grave violations of human dignity" are the drama of poverty, war, travail of migrants, human trafficking, sexual abuse, violence against women, abortion, surrogacy, euthanasia and assisted suicide, marginalization of people with disabilities, gender theory, sex change and digital violence. The document's discussion of gender identity has perhaps created the most controversy. The Document says in part:

It needs to be emphasized that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.’” Therefore, all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected: “We cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore.” Only by acknowledging and accepting this difference in reciprocity can each person fully discover themselves, their dignity, and their identity....

It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception. This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities. However, in this case, such a medical procedure would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended here.

Asked at a Press Gaggle (full text) about President Biden's reaction to the Declaration, the White House Press Secretary said that it was not the President's role "to litigate internal church policy," but that the President has been clear that it is important to have protections for the transgender community and the broader LGBTQ+ community. 

Vox reports at greater length on the Vatican document.

Pope Calls for Universal Ban on Surrogate Motherhood

In remarks (full text) yesterday at his Audience with the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See for the Presentation of Greetings for the New Year, Pope Francis addressed a wide range of issues. Among those making news was his call for a ban on surrogate motherhood.  The Pope said in part:

The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every human life, starting with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking. In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs. A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract. Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.

AP reports on the Pope's remarks. The Pope's call echoes the position taken in 1987 by Pope John Paul II in Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation: Replies to Certain Questions of the Day (full text).

Pope OK's Non-Marital Blessings for Same-Sex Couples

In a Declaration titled "Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings" (full text) issued by the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by Pope Francis, the Pope has given priests permission to give a blessing to same-sex or other unmarried couples. The Declaration says in part:

31. Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage. In such cases, a blessing may be imparted that ... descends from God upon those who—recognizing themselves to be destitute and in need of his help—do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit. These forms of blessing express a supplication that God may grant those aids that come from the impulses of his Spirit ... so that human relationships may mature and grow in fidelity to the Gospel, that they may be freed from their imperfections and frailties, and that they may express themselves in the ever-increasing dimension of the divine love.

32. Indeed, the grace of God works in the lives of those who do not claim to be righteous but who acknowledge themselves humbly as sinners, like everyone else. This grace can orient everything according to the mysterious and unpredictable designs of God. Therefore ... the Church welcomes all who approach God with humble hearts, accompanying them with those spiritual aids that enable everyone to understand and realize God’s will fully in their existence.

Catholic News Service reported on the document, and summarized it as follows:

The Vatican offered a narrow set of conditions under which a priest or deacon could give a blessing to a same-sex or other unmarried couple, making it clear the church does not consider their unions a marriage but also recognizing how anyone can ask for a blessing when they are seeking God's assistance, mercy and grace.

In Israel, Jerusalem Municipality Places Tax Lien on Vatican-Owned Guest House

Times of Israel reports that the Jerusalem Municipality has placed a lien on the bank accounts of the Vatican-owned Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center.  The Center contains a guest house with rooms and suites for travelers, a chapel, restaurants and other facilities.  Municipal authorities say that the Center owes $5 million in back taxes, contending that it operates as a regular hotel. The Vatican says it is a non-profit organization serving Christian pilgrims. The paper explains in part:

Religious institutions in Israel, including churches and monasteries, are exempt from paying property tax. However, in recent years, Israel has sought to come to an agreement with the Vatican that would place Church-owned commercial enterprises — like hotels and coffee shops — under taxation.....

The Church’s position is that since the sides have not come to a final agreement, the existing arrangement in which no properties are taxed should remain in force.

The state has not fought this claim, but in 2018, the Jerusalem municipality decided — citing the legal opinion of Gabriel Hallevy, whom it described as an international law expert — that the exemption for churches applies only to properties used “for prayer, for the teaching of religion, or for needs arising from that.”

The church argues that the guest house functions as a religious institution, and should be exempt from the taxes....

Head of Priests for Life Defrocked by The Vatican

A letter and statement (full text) from the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States to U.S. Catholic bishops reports:

Rev. Frank Pavone, the founder of the organization, Priests for Life, Inc., was dismissed from the clerical state by the Holy See on 9 November 2022. This action was taken after Father Pavone was found guilty in canonical proceedings of blasphemous communications on social media, and of persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop. 

Father Pavone was given ample opportunity to defend himself in the canonical proceedings, and he was also given multiple opportunities to submit himself to the authority of his diocesan bishop. It was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions. 

Since Priests for Life, Inc. is not a Catholic organization, Mr. Pavone’s continuing role in it as a lay person would be entirely up to the leadership of that organization.

According to Catholic News Agency:

Pavone has been at odds with Bishop Patrick J. Zurek in Amarillo since the latter became bishop there in 2008. In 2011, Zurek publicly suspended Pavone, though Pavone later had the suspension overruled by the Vatican....

Pavone’s political activism played a role in his problems in Amarillo.

An outspoken supporter of former president Donald Trump, Pavone served on official Trump campaign outreach positions in 2016 and was originally a co-chair of Trump’s 2020 pro-life coalition, as well as an advisory board member of Catholics for Trump. Canon law forbids clerics from having an active role in political parties unless they receive the permission of their bishop. 

In November 2016, Pavone filmed a video at the Priests for Life headquarters, urging support for Trump. The video was staged with the body of an aborted baby laid before Pavone on what appeared to be an altar....

On his website, Pavone details his version of what happened in the video.... "[T]his was a table in our office, not a consecrated altar in a chapel"....

Senate Confirms Joseph Donnelley As Ambassador To The Vatican

On Jan. 20, the U.S. Senate, by voice vote, confirmed Joseph Donnelley of Indiana to be U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. AP reports:

Donnelly is a Democrat who served six years in the U.S. House from a South Bend-area district before winning election to the Senate in 2012. He lost his 2018 reelection bid to Republican Mike Braun.

Donnelly has bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Notre Dame, where he has been a part-time professor while also working for the Washington law firm Akin Gump.

Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins called Donnelly “a person of deep Catholic faith and commitment to public service.”

 [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Abuse Victim's Claim Against The Vatican Dismissed Under FSIA

In Robles v. Holy See (State of Vatican City), (SD NY, Dec. 20, 2021), a New York federal district court dismissed a suit against the Vatican by plaintiff who was sexually abused by Catholic priest Barry Bossa from 1981 to 1986. Plaintiff claimed that the Vatican's policies contributed to the abuse, and asserted negligence and vicarious liability claims against the Vatican. The court held that under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, it lacks jurisdiction over the Holy See on the claims as plead, saying in part:

At least at this stage ... the exception to the FSIA for tort liability based on the actions of an employee provides jurisdiction for claims of negligence, negligent training, supervision, and retention, and international law claims against the Holy See....

The Holy See’s alleged conduct, such as promulgating policies and supervising its employees and officials, occurred in large part at the Vatican.... As a result, the Holy See is immune from Plaintiff’s claims arising from the Holy See’s conduct that occurred outside the United States....

The Tortious Act Exception also excludes “any claim based upon the exercise or performance or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function regardless of whether the discretion be abused.” 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(5)(A). It is at this last step of the analysis that the last of Plaintiff’s remaining claims against the Holy See — negligence, negligent training, supervision, and retention, and violations of customary international law, all pursuant to respondeat superior based on the alleged actions of its putative employees— fail....

Case-law is clear that decisions related to employment and supervision are exactly the kind of policy judgments that the discretionary exclusion was designed to shield.....

Plaintiff’s broader negligence claim against the Holy See pursuant to respondeat superior, including his failure-to-warn and failure-to-report allegations ... is dismissed without prejudice, because, although perhaps a steep uphill climb, Plaintiff could conceivably allege facts in an amended complaint demonstrating lack of discretion as to these actions....

European Court Upholds Vatican's Immunity From Suit In Member-State Courts

In J.C. and Others v. Belgium, (ECHR, Oct. 12, 2021) (full text in French) (press release in English) the European Court of Human Rights in a 6-1 Chamber judgment held that Belgian courts acted properly in recognizing immunity of the Holy See from jurisdiction of domestic courts. At issue was a suit by 24 Belgian, French and Dutch nationals who alleged that as children they were abused by priests. They filed a class action for damages contending that the Church dealt with its sexual abuse problem in a structurally deficient manner. After the dismissal by Belgian courts, 20 of the plaintiffs were able to obtain compensation through the Church's own arbitration center for sexual abuse claims.

Biden Picks Former Indiana Senator As Ambassador To Vatican

Last Friday, the White House announced that President Biden will nominate former Indiana senator Joseph Donnelley as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Holy See. Indianapolis Star reported on the nomination. Donnelley has also been a faculty member at Notre Dame and is presently a partner at the law firm of Aiken Gump.

Street Artist Sues Vatican For Using Her Image of Christ On Postage Stamp

 AP reports on a lawsuit filed in Italy last month by a Rome street artist.  Alessia Babrow has sued the Vatican for copyright infringement for using her street art image of Christ on the Vatican's 2020 Easter postage stamp.  The image was glued onto a bridge near the Vatican:

Olivieri, the Vatican’s numismatic chief, has told an Italian journalist that he took a photo of the Christ when he saw it while riding his moped one day and decided to use the image for the Easter stamp in an apparent attempt to appeal to a new generation of stamp enthusiasts.

Vatican Cautions U.S. Bishops Over Moves To Deny Communion To President Biden

AP reported last month that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is considering issuing a document that would call for denying Communion to public officials-- including President Joe Biden-- who support abortion rights. Now the Vatican has made its views on the process known.  According to yesterday's National Catholic Reporter:

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has urged the U.S. bishops to proceed with caution in their discussions about formulating a national policy "to address the situation of Catholics in public office who support legislation allowing abortion, euthanasia or other moral evils."...

In the letter to Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, [Cardinal Luis] Ladaria also insisted: such a policy cannot usurp the authority of an individual bishop in his diocese on the matter; the policy would require near unanimity; and it would be "misleading" to present abortion and euthanasia as "the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest level of accountability on the part of Catholics."

The letter, dated May 7 and obtained by Catholic News Service in Rome, said it was in response to a letter from Gomez informing the doctrinal congregation that the bishops were preparing to address the situation of Catholic politicians and "the worthiness to receive holy Communion."...

Vatican Publishes Lengthy Report On Its Handling Of Abuse Accusations Against Former Cardinal McCarrick

The Vatican yesterday released a 461-page report titled The Holy See's Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick. (Full text). A statement (full text) by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin says in part:

The Report ..., which the Secretariat of State drew up on the Pope's mandate, is published today. It is a substantial text, which has involved a careful examination of all the relevant documentation of the archives in the Holy See, at the Nunciature in Washington and in the dioceses of the United States involved in various ways. The complex investigation was also integrated with information obtained from interviews with witnesses and persons with knowledge of the facts, in order to obtain as complete a picture as possible and a more detailed and accurate knowledge of the relevant information.

We publish the Report with sorrow for the wounds that these events have caused to the victims, their families, the Church in the United States, and the Universal Church.

CBS News, summarizing details of the Report, said in part:

Pope Francis kept a promise by releasing the 461-page report, which attempts to answer a troubling question about McCarrick.

“How a man who had rumors swirling about him, about how he liked to sleep with seminarians could nevertheless rise to the top of the Catholic church,” AP religion writer Nicole Winfield said.

Charming and well-spoken in five languages, McCarrick was a leading figure in American Catholicism for years. He was the Bishop of Metuchen, Archbishop of Newark, and Cardinal of Washington D.C. Now, the 90-year-old is disgraced, defrocked, and widely viewed as a deceiver....

The report says Pope John Paul II believed McCarrick’s denial, after New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor raised red flags in a 1999 letter.

It also faults several bishops for providing incomplete information about McCarrick to the Vatican.

Vatican Issues New Guide To Clergy On Handling Sex Abuse Cases

The Vatican, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, yesterday issued a detailed guide for clerics on handling clergy sex abuse cases.  Titled Vademcum: On Certain Points of Procedure In Treating Cases of Sexual Abuse of Minors Committed By Clerics (full text). The guide provides in part:

17. Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts.

The Vatican also issued a press release summarizing the Vademcum. The New York Times, reporting on these developments, said in part:

[T]he new instructions are not binding and were not enshrined in the church’s canon law, prompting criticism that the Vatican still gives bishops too much leeway in judging the conduct of their priests.

Pompeo Speaks At Vatican Symposium On Faith-Based Organizations

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke yesterday (full text and video of remarks) in the Vatican at a symposium titled Pathways to Achieving Human Dignity: Partnering with Faith-Based Organizations. The event was co-sponsored by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. (Background on event). In his remarks, Secretary Pompeo particularly highlighted the persecution of Uighurs in China, but called out a number of other nations as well, saying in part:

We must recognize the roots of religious repression.  Authoritarian regimes and autocrats will never accept a power higher than their own.  And that causes all sorts of assaults on human dignity.

We must exercise our moral voice to confront them.

Vatican Waives Diplomatic Immunity of Apostolic Nuncio In France

La Croix reports:

The Vatican has officially waived the diplomatic immunity of the Apostolic Nuncio in France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, allowing him to appear before a civil court where six complainants have accused him of sexual assault.

This decision, unprecedented in the history of modern Vatican diplomacy, was communicated last week to the French authorities by the Secretariat of State of the Vatican.

Vatican Reiterates Inviolability of Confessional

On Monday, the Vatican, with the approval of Pope Francis, released the Note of the Apostolic Penitentiary on the Importance of the Internal Forum and the Inviolability of the Sacramental Seal.(Full text in Italian.)   The Note reads in part [unofficial translation]:

Any political action or legislative initiative aimed at "forcing" the inviolability of the sacramental seal would constitute an unacceptable offense against the libertas Ecclesiae , which does not receive its legitimacy from individual States, but from God; it would also constitute a violation of religious freedom, legally fundamental to all other freedoms, including the freedom of conscience of individual citizens, both penitents and confessors. Breaking the seal would be tantamount to violating the poor who is in the sinner.

The Apostolic Penitentiary is a Vatican tribunal dealing with issues of confession and absolution. According to an AP report, Cardinal Piacenza, head of the tribunal, issued a statement interpreting the Note, and saying in part:

It’s opportune to make clear that the text of the statement cannot and doesn’t want to be in any way a justification or a form of tolerance of the abhorrent cases of abuse perpetrated by members of the clergy.

No compromise is acceptable in promoting the protection of minors and of vulnerable persons and in preventing and combatting every form of abuse, in the spirit of that which has been constantly reiterated (by Francis).

[Thanks to Tom Rutledge for the lead.]

During LGBTQ Pride Month, Vatican Issues Document On Gender Theory In Education

The Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education yesterday issued a 32-page document titled Male and Female He Created Them: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education. (Full text). The document says in part:

There is a need to reaffrm the metaphysical roots of sexual difference, as an anthropological refutation of attempts to negate the male-female duality of human nature, from which the family is generated. The denial of this duality not only erases the vision of human beings as the fruit of an act of creation but creates the idea of the human person as a sort of abstraction who “chooses for himself what his nature is to be. Man and woman in their created state as complementary versions of what it means to be human are disputed. But if there is no pre-ordained duality of man and woman in creation, then neither is the family any longer a reality established by creation. Likewise, the child has lost the place he had occupied hitherto and the dignity pertaining to him”.

According to Vatican News:

The new document is intended as an instrument to help guide Catholic contributions to the ongoing debate about human sexuality, and to address the challenges that emerge from gender ideology.

As reported by CBS News,  the document, issued during LGBTQ Pride Month, was criticized by LGBTQ advocacy groups.