Pope Leo XIV, who was known as Cardinal Robert Prevost before becoming the first American selected to direct the Catholic Church on Thursday, republished the critical online content towards President Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance on immigration and religious issues.
Originally from Chicago and a graduate of the University of Villanova, Leo XIV speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, and can read Latin and German. He joined X – then known as Twitter – in 2011, and published sporadically and republished content in several languages on the @DRPREVOST account.
On February 3, Prevost shared a link with a national article by Catholic journalist entitled: “JD Vance is bad: Jesus does not ask us to classify our love for others.” The article challenged the interpretation by Vance of “Ordo Amoris”, a Catholic concept which is roughly translated into “the order of love” or “order of charity”.
“There is a Christian concept that you like your family, then you like your neighbor, then you like your community, then you like your colleagues citizens, then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. Much of the far left has completely reversed,” said Vance during an interview with Fox Francis on January 29.
On April 14, the most recent republication of PREVOST linked to the article by Catholic blogger Rocco Palmo denouncing the “illicit deportation of the Trump administration of an American resident” – a reference to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoral citizen wrongly deported operational documents by an American judge. The message cited Bishop Salvadoran Evelio Menjivar: “You don’t see suffering? Isn’t your conscience disturbed? How can you remain silent?”
In 2017, Prevost also republished tweets denouncing the policies of the first Trump administration towards refugees in Syria and other Muslim majority countries. Pope Leo XIV also shared messages in support of firearm control measures and opposite abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia and so-called “gender ideology” in public schools.
For their part, Trump, Vance and other American leaders congratulated the new Pope.
From Leo XIV, Trump wrote that it was “such an honor to realize that he is the first American pope” and says that he is looking forward to meeting him. Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, wrote: “I am sure that millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work to direct the Church.”
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Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
