The image, shared Friday evening on Trump’s social social site, then republished by the White House on its official account X, sparked reactions on social networks and to the Vatican, which is still in official mourning for nine days after the death of François on April 21. Catholic cardinals celebrate masses every day in his memory and must open the conclave on Wednesday to elect his successor.
The death of a pope and the election of another are extremely solemn events for Catholics, for whom the pope is the vicar of Christ on earth. This is all the more true in Italy, where the papacy is held in high esteem, even by non -religious Italians.
The image representing Trump dressed in a white cassock and wearing a miter, or a bishop’s hat, was the subject of several questions during the daily briefing of the Conclave at the Vatican on Saturday. The Italian and Spanish media deplored its bad taste and qualified it as offensive, since the official mourning period is still in progress.
Former leftist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi described this image as shameful. “It is an image that offers believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the world right likes to make the clown,” wrote Mr. Renzi on X. “Meanwhile, the American economy risks the recession and the dollar loses its value. Sovereignists do damage everywhere. ”
Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni refused to comment.
In the United States, the Catholic Conference of New York State, which represents state bishops in their relations with the government, accused Trump of mockery.
“There is nothing intelligent or fun in this image, Mr. President,” they wrote.
“We have just built our beloved Pope Francis and the Cardinals are preparing to enter into a solemn conclave to elect a new successor from Saint-Pierre. Don’t make fun of us. “
– New York State Catholic Conference in a written declaration
The left -wing Italian newspaper The Republic also published the image on his home page on Saturday, accompanied by a comment accusing Trump of “pathological megalomania”.
The White House did not immediately answer questions about the negative reactions aroused by the image or the reasons why the president had shared it.
But Jack Posobiec, an influential Trump’s far -right personality who recently participated in a Catholic prayer ceremony in March in Trump’s seaside resort in Florida, defended the president.
“I am Catholic. We all joked all the week on the next pope’s election. This is called the meaning of humor, “he wrote on X.
-This episode follows Trump’s joke last week on his interest in the vacant position. “I would like to be pope. It would be my first choice, “said the president, who married three times and is not Catholic, to journalists.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump, added.
“I was delighted to learn that President Trump was open to the idea of becoming the next Pope. It would really be a surprise candidate, but I would ask the Papal conclave and the Catholic faithful to keep an open mind to this possibility! ” wrote Graham, Rs.C., on X. “The first American Pope-President combination has many advantages. While waiting for white smoke … Trump MMXXVIII! “
Vice-president JD Vance, who is Catholic and who was one of the last foreign officials to meet François before his death, also joked that the Secretary of State Marco Rubio becomes Pope, suggesting that Rubio could add this title to the long list of those he already has, in particular that of national security advisor and interim archivist.
Beyond offering himself for the position, Trump also promoted Cardinal Timothy Dolan, New York archbishop.
“I have no preference. I must say that we have a cardinal who is in New York and who is very good. We will see what will happen, ”he said.
Dolan, 75, is one of the ten American cardinals who will vote during the conclave, but Trump’s declaration could cost him votes.
The conclaves take place in secrecy, the cardinals being isolated throughout their duration, in order to prevent external secular powers from influencing their choice, as happened over the past centuries.
There is an old adage on the campaign for the position of Pope or on excessive promotion, especially by external people: “If you enter a conclave as a pope, you take it out as a cardinal”.
While Trump attended the funeral of François, he and Vance encountered the American bishops in general and to François in particular about the hard position of the administration on immigration and his efforts to expel mass migrants. Just before being hospitalized in February for pneumonia, François severely reprimanded the massive expulsion plans of the administration and the theological justification of Vance in this regard.
During his 12 years of pontificate, François tried to reshape the American Catholic hierarchy in his image, by promoting pastors who favored social justice and migration issues rather than the cultural warriors who had the favors of his more doctrinaire predecessors, Saint John Paul II and Benoît XVI. A new, more conservative pope could reverse this trend.
Trump appointed as an ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch, whose Catholicvote.org site has covered in an aggressively covered the days preceding the Conclave to the Vatican. This site was one of the main broadcasters in the English -speaking media of information, categorically denied by the Vatican, according to which Cardinal Pietro Parolin had a health problem last week which would have required medical care.
Bishop Parolin was Secretary of State under François and is considered one of the main candidates for the papacy. He is also the main architect of the Vatican policy towards China and its controversial agreement of 2018 with Beijing on the appointment of bishops, an agreement which was strongly criticized by the first Trump administration.
