The distinctiveness of their clash is not due mainly to the fact that Robert Francis Prevost is the first American-born pope, though that is significant. After all, Leo can't be dismissed as a foreigner who is speaking about a country and culture he doesn't understand. When he is critical of America, on matters ranging from war to mass deportation to those who 'manipulate religions and the very name of God,' it comes from a place of love and devotion. Nor does it have to do solely with the nature of the disagreements, most specifically the war waged by Trump against Iran. Past popes have criticized past presidents for going to war. What makes the Trump-Leo collision most unusual is the manner of the disagreement, not on the part of the pope'whose criticisms have been direct but restrained'but on the part of the president. No president has ever attacked the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church so directly and so personally. Trump called Leo 'WEAK on Crime' and 'terrible for...
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