Pope Leo's tweets and President Trump's humanity

A weird juxtaposition that somehow makes sense?

Pope Leo XIV has wasted no time since assuming the Twitter handle “@Pontifex”. The media stream has been steady and uplifting, with nary a twinge of judgment or condemnation for all the ills of the world. It’s actually refreshing to read some of these. Granted, I am no pope-watcher, so it’s possible the Holy See has always done this kind of thing, but I have been intrigued by the ascendancy of the first American-born pope and how that might affect the global Roman Catholic Church, and Christianity in general. Placed against this mini-backdrop, I had to re-examine some of President Donald Trump’s priorities in a different light, and came to a surprising (to me!) conclusion.

⁠Pope Leo XIV during an audience with the media (May 12, 2025). Image: Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I urge you to read Alex Salvi’s account, in a thread posted on X/Twitter of Cardinal Robert Prevost’s election by the voting members of the College of Cardinals. Salvi covers the Vatican for Newsmax. (Yes, I know, it’s Newsmax, so throw some salt over your shoulder, but this is Salvi’s personal Twitter account.) Read from a purely church-insider perspective, it seems like ecclesiastical politics ruled, with “conservative” traditionalist and “liberal” progressive wings duking it out for control. But it’s much more nuanced than that.

It turns out that the Asian, African, and North- and South-American Cardinals (who the European progressives counted on for support) found themselves longing for a more orthodox papacy, and were very concerned with Pope Francis’ cooperation with China’s ruling communists, along with some of his other decisions regarding the blessing of same-sex marriages. They didn’t want a continuation of that kind of doctrine. But they did want reform, and in getting it, they broke a longstanding taboo against picking an American pope.

Seen from a different viewpoint, there were 133 men, serious about their relationship with Christ, who had been elevated to a high elder position in the largest governed body of Christian believers in the world, who had to pray and choose someone to lead their group and the faithful into a very turbulent future. God used these men to—and quickly, I might add—put Prevost forward for that challenge. I have no idea how Pope Leo XIV will govern the Roman Catholic Church. But I am encouraged by his first words and posts.

The last two tweets from “@Pontifex” read:

The Holy See is willing to help enemies meet, so they may look each other in the eye and so people may be given back the dignity they deserve: the dignity of peace. With heart in hand, I say to the leaders of nations: let us meet; let us dialogue; let us negotiate!

and

War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must fall silent, for they never solve problems but only intensify them. Those who sow peace will endure throughout history, not those who reap victims. Others are not enemies to hate but human beings with whom to speak.

Amen! When the pope speaks of “weapons” he is not talking about spiritual weapons, nor is he talking about the war that rages in our hearts and in the heavens. How can I know this? Go back one more tweet.

Christ's peace is not the silence of the tomb after a conflict, and it is not the result of subjugation. Peace is a gift that gazes at others and renews their lives. Let us pray for this peace, which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and courage to turn the page and start again.

The peace that only God can grant reigns when the world rages, and is serene in the face of violence. It takes courage to move beyond hurts and vengeance, and to make friends of enemies. That kind of moral courage is rare in people. But somehow, God uses the most unlikely vessels to carry the seeds of reconciliation.

I can point to my life, when in 1999 I was struggling with identity and what I believed. God used a friend who had not darkened the door of a church in decades, since his teenage years, to take me out for a beer and tell me I was a basket case (I knew I was as well). He told me to read the New Testament, a book I had banned myself, as a Jew, from reading. As far as I know, that person who helped me still doesn’t follow the faith or warm a pew, but he almost singlehandedly ignited a faith in me that still burns.

President Trump went to Saudi Arabia to meet with terror-supporting rich men, who sought to buy his countenance with a gold-laced bauble of a 747-8 luxury jet. Like the used car salesman who offers a test drive, they knew what Trump would find irresistible. But while in Riyadh, Trump also agreed to meet with the new leader of Syria, President Ahmed al-Shara. That meeting led to the U.S. lifting all sanctions on Syria, with Trump telling al-Shara “he has a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country,” according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s briefing to the media.

The Syrian president went on TV in his nation, telling his countrymen:

“Today, I do not celebrate the lifting of sanctions alone. I celebrate the return of true brotherhood and the emotional connection between nations in our region,” he said. “President Donald Trump responded to these collective efforts, and his decision to lift sanctions was the result of a unified will.”

Trump, the week before, had the U.S. enter direct negotiations with Hamas, which secured the release of Edan Alexander, the last American hostage held in Gaza. Israel, by contrast, launched an airstrike targeting Muhammad Sinwar, the military leader of Hamas, and brother of Yahya Sinwar, who the Israelis killed last year. Sinwar’s hardline leadership has kept Hamas from moving toward a permanent ceasefire by refusing to release the remaining hostages.

The cycle of young terrorists being imprisoned by Israel, the Palestinians continually planning attacks and hostage-taking of Israelis, and Israel trading release of the imprisoned terrorists for the lives of the hostages, is unsustainable and deeply morally corrupt. There is no basis for negotiations or even seeing the humanity in such an existence. There will be no beating Hamas into submission, or even its destruction when Hamas still exists in Israeli prisons, and therefore in the hearts of Gazans—and supported by West Bank Palestinians, along with many Saudis and the filthy rich sheiks who run places like Qatar and Oman.

It takes moral courage, or God using the simple needs of a greedy man who wants a gilded jet (maybe there is a use for that grift!), to see people who are the friends of our enemies, as human beings, look them in the eye, and embrace them. I know that looks trite, and almost like a fake show, but the recognition of Ahmed al-Shara as more than a one-time Al Qaeda leader, an enemy to be punished, is meaningful. Of course, we must take care, because we can treat people respectfully, and they can remain killers, then betray us and our olive branches of dignity. But there’s risk in all things.

Now, all of you who are looking at end-times prophecy: all the stuff about the pope and ecumenical one-world religion, or the antichrist and the treaty with Israel and its enemies, don’t email me. I know all that. It’s missing the point entirely. As Christians, our war is spiritual, against spiritual beings who love to see us humans demonize, fight, and kill each other in an endless stream of violence. The message of the cross is love, and the defeat of death.

Pope Leo’s tweets and President Trump’s actions stand in a weird juxtaposition, as acts of encouragement and humanity in a world bathed in war, death, and blood feuds. I must say that both surprises me and also lifts my spirits. More of this, please.

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