A Fox News poll released last week<\/a> found that only 48% of Catholics nationwide approve of Trump\u2019s overall performance. While 57% of white Catholics still support Trump, a majority of them aren\u2019t happy with his actions in Iran \u2014 the issue that\u2019s turning out to be a millstone around his neck.<\/p>\nTrump\u2019s second term has been a nightmare that seems to worsen every day. Yet not only is this country still standing, but more and more people are waking up to the mockery he\u2019s made of American values. One of the new warriors is Leo, who told reporters he spoke out not to sway politics in his home country, but to offer, in his role as head of the world\u2019s 1.4 billion Catholics, a reminder of what Jesus practiced and preached. <\/p>\n
No wonder Trump, who wants to erect idols to himself like a Canaanite king, is so upset.<\/p>\n
May Leo\u2019s words wake up more good people, regardless of their faith, to rise against Trump \u2014 and especially stir lapsed Catholics to return to Mother Church.<\/p>\n
U.S. Catholics have long served as a barometer of acceptance for newcomers and the working class. But only about 20% of Americans identify as Catholic, per a Pew Research Center study released last year. And only 30% of those Catholics attend Mass weekly. Many more leave the faith than adopt it, at rates that far exceed other Christian denominations. This collapse has allowed the Catholic church\u2019s conservative wing to take over, departing from the historic mission and instead leading us to Trump.<\/p>\n
My lifelong commitment to social justice and my eternal skepticism of power and avarice comes from what I learned growing up at St. Boniface in Anaheim. I even had aspirations to become a priest, because I find few things more noble than dedicating your life to helping others.<\/p>\n
I stopped attending Mass once I began covering the church\u2019s sex abuse scandals as a journalist. I was outraged that men who held themselves up to be the custodians of God on Earth not only allowed such crimes to happen but usually covered them up and shunted off the offenders to poor parishes like mine. <\/p>\n
I never stopped praying or considering myself a Catholic \u2014 but I couldn\u2019t bring myself to support institutions headed by men such as L.A. Archbishop Jos\u00e9 H. G\u00f3mez and Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann, who always seem to have sharp words for progressives but never for Trump.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a long road back for me to openly write about my faith with pride \u2014 but Trump\u2019s continued heresies have made it necessary. I still don\u2019t know when or if I\u2019ll start attending Mass again regularly, but the fact that I\u2019m even thinking about it shows Leo\u2019s impact on me.<\/p>\n
Recently, someone I was interviewing noticed my scapular of the Santo Ni\u00f1o de Atocha with the word \u201cAmor\u201d on the other side. Last year, I tucked this simple necklace that\u2019s a sign of devotion inside the plastic sleeve holding my Los Angeles Times badge, along with a few religious medals. <\/p>\n
Pope Leo caused that. Trump caused that. Any chance to talk about my Catholic faith and why Trump is bad, I\u2019m going to take.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not afraid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m not afraid.\u201d With these three words Sunday morning, Pope Leo XIV offered as powerful a rebuke of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":727110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,20936,30573,9958,11412,2961,11542,301134,224,5337,301136,301137,5389,1807,33817,83935,277,301135,27020],"class_list":["post-727109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-catholic","tag-church","tag-country","tag-faith","tag-la","tag-leo","tag-liberal-catholics","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mass-weekly","tag-mild-mannered-man","tag-pope-leo","tag-president-trump","tag-reporter","tag-second-term","tag-trump","tag-trump-last-year","tag-word"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116402640114590066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776163229_16_.jpeg\")
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