President Donald Trump’s description of Pope Leo on Sunday as “weak on crime” and “a pope that’s going to say that it’s ok to have a nuclear weapon” raised eyebrows around the world and in USA itself, where 20% of citizens belong to the Roman Catholic Church, of which Pope Leo is the Supreme Pontiff, Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Jesus Christ.
Once upon a time, US Presidents went to great lengths to avoid criticizing the Pope. In 1976, during the debates preceding that year’s presidential election, Democratic Party candidate Jimmy Carter criticized his Republican election opponent, President Gerald Ford, for signing a certain United Nations convention. Ford disarmed Jimmy Carter by saying over a hundred other countries signed the convention, “including the Vatican.” Jimmy Carter quickly said, “I am not criticizing His Holiness the Pope! I am talking about Mr. Ford.”
