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JD Vance defends Trump amid spat with Pope Leo: ‘Stick to matters of morality’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
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In all seriousness, while I am confident that it wouldn't get to that level, if the Pope and Trump actually do get in a pissing match...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdict
Like, it isn't the Middle Ages any more, but the Pope could probably put a considerable amount of political pressure in if he really wanted to.
current papacy is pretty nuch built around ignoring even the most obvious of schisms, see german catholic church openly allowing bishops to marry/be gay/woman.
That sounds like misinformation.
whoops, it's "bless gay couples", let priests marry, allow female deacons.
i'm not up-to-date on that brand of superstition's lore terms so i don't really care how priests/deacons are all that different from bishops.
all 3 are things the catholic church used to kill a/o excommunicate for befode though
In an ideal world the Pope would have as much influence as the leader of Hogwarts.
I guess...
But it wouldn't be as funny as excommunicating Vance. And then when he complained about it excomm-ing the President too.
Mmm...debatable. I would be laughing if Trump managed to get a national interdict from the first US-born pope.
thinks
It'd create a stupendous political shitstorm. Like, back when Catholic immigration to the US started to increase, there used to be a national frenzy from the (then-much-more-Protestant) American population worried that the Pope would control the government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Catholicism_in_the_United_States
Puck, 1894:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Udo_J.%2CKeppler_The_American_Pope_1894_Cornell_CUL_PJM_1118_01.jpg
Harper's Weekly, 1871:
https://thomasnast.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/15TW-TheAmericanRiverGanges.jpg
I'd venture to say that starting a Protestant-Catholic split would be an extremely bad move in terms of the Republican Party's fortunes, given that it's presently the social conservative party.
I could honestly see some bullshit happening like this, if either were to be excommunicated: trump starts his own "offshoot" of Catholicism where he's literally just God now, and all his MAGAts will switch to this new "religion" because Daddy trump said so.
Worked for Henry VIII, but Henry wasn't going to be out of office in less than three years, either...