The new pope, Leo XIV, will seek to build bridges with all world leaders including Donald Trump, New York’s cardinal has said.
“Will he want to build bridges with Donald Trump? I suppose.
But he will want to build bridges with the leader of every
nation,” Timothy Dolan said.
Pope Leo is the first American pontiff and after his election Trump posted on his Truth Social platform about the “excitement” and “Great Honor” for the US to have a Chicago-born man as head of the Catholic Church.
Criticism of Trump administration
In the past a social media account bearing Pope Leo’s name before he became pontiff shared posts that were critical of the Trump administration.
It shared an opinion piece in February which criticised US vice president JD Vance for his beliefs about some aspects of Christian teaching.
New pope likely to challenge US president
A UK theologian has said she thinks the 69-year-old will avoid confrontation while also challenging the US administration.
“I think he might have this way of being quite a disarming presence. He’s gentle, he’s thoughtful. He’s almost all the opposite characteristics to Trump,” Professor Anna Rowlands told PA.
Asked how he might approach a meeting with Trump, Rowlands said: “He’s unlikely to be confrontational, I think, because of his nature, and yet I think the content of what he says will be quite challenging.
Rowlands spent two years seconded to the Vatican during Francis’s papacy.
She met and shook hands with Pope Leo in the hours after his election on Thursday, describing the experience as “brief but really lovely”.