The Pope and Donald Trump: Addressing the Blurred Lines Between the Sacred and Profane

A few days ago, Catholic and political social media started buzzing. As many Catholics picked up their beads, revisited novenas, and committed to extra prayers for the papal conclave, the White House and President Donald Trump’s official accounts shared an AI image of him dressed as pope. And of course, chaos ensued. The image seemed to play off of Trump’s words, “I’d like to be pope.” 

Yes, we could address the entire incident as Bishop Barron did, stating that the image was “a bad joke,” and now it’s time to move on. And in part, this is true. It is a bad joke, and Trump is obviously not a Catholic, so let’s just move on.  

But the image unearthed a more disturbing element at play. And that is the infallibility complex that seems to have consumed the minds of so many Trump supporters. 

To illustrate, a mere statement regarding the profane nature of this “joke” warrants any Catholic a sanctimonious scolding for “judging” the “savior” Donald Trump. Why are so many Catholics eager to give Donald Trump carte blanche? It’s as if many of his followers believe Trump possesses some kind of ethereal infallibility, regardless of issues he flip-flops on, his blatant support for IVF, and the list goes on.  Why are so many Catholics eager to give Donald Trump carte blanche? It’s as if many of his followers believe Trump possesses some kind of ethereal infallibility.Tweet This

One simple example of flip-flopping is that, in 2024, Trump went on Tim Pool’s podcast proclaiming a very anti-war, America-first stance: “Recently they started dropping bombs all over Yemen,” he said. “You don’t have to do that,” he continued and simultaneously advocated for phone calls, not unnecessary death. But wait, aren’t we bombing Yemen?

Just the memory of what Trump once heralded warrants you a trip to the proverbial guillotine. But how does such blind devotion help anyone? 

So, of course, an image of Trump as pope sparked all kinds of hubbub. It’s slightly ironic, considering how many seem to view him through the lens of papal infallibility. 

As Catholics, we have to remember that there is a time to be offended. 

Taking offense doesn’t mean fainting spells or some kind of dramatic, over-the-top response. It doesn’t make you a “snowflake.” Instead, it’s recognizing when something is inappropriate. It’s good to be offended by things that are sinful or making a mockery of our Faith. St. Thomas Aquinas states in the Summa Theologiae (II–II, Q. 158, A. 8), “He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices; it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but even the good to do wrong.”  

When we fail to find offense in the profane, all we are doing is revealing how dramatically we’ve lost our sense of the sacred. It also indicates that, maybe, conservatism isn’t really about moral values anymore, since we are okay with fostering moral negligence.

Where Has All the Reverence Gone?

Writer and philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand explains reverence as “the attitude that can be designated as the mother of all moral life, for in it man first takes a position toward the world that opens his spiritual eyes and enables him to grasp values.” Reverence reminds us that there is something greater than us: God. It pulls us out of all the muck and nonsense and orients us back to the eternal. Reverence is a prerequisite to living a moral life; for without it, we become consumed by our own hubris.  

It’s paramount that we grasp the necessity of reverence because culturally we’ve been taught to valorize the irreverent; the lines between the sacred and profane are blurred. Our moral convictions seem to slip away as we grow more enamored, placing our faith in the heroes of this world rather than in our One True Hero, Jesus, our King. 

The Catholic Faith is imbued with deep mystery, mystery surrounded by holy reverence. We believe that a priest acts in persona Christi, and as such, he is owed tremendous respect.

In The Dialogue, St. Catherine of Siena wrote, “The sins of the clergy should not lessen your reverence for them” (Dialogue 116). God revealed to St. Catherine that “the reverence you pay to priests is not actually paid to them but to Me, in virtue of the blood I have entrusted to their ministry.” 

Thus, our respect for the priesthood is really a respect for Christ; and a mockery of it is a mockery of Christ. It might be tempting to point out that there have been so many scandals within the priesthood (and the papacy for that matter), but there were also horrific scandals happening in the 14th century, when St. Catherine of Siena lived. 

The pope is the Vicar of Christ, our Shepherd, our Holy Father. He is not the subject for crude jokes. Do you hold reverence for the sacredness of the papal office? 

And Then There’s Scandal…

“Now when you sin thus against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). 

This past Sunday, my priest pointed out that “in some way, all of us play the role of shepherd.” Someone is always watching, taking note of what we say, do, and fail to do. He shared a beautiful snippet from the life of St. Edith Stein. It was one of the moments that propelled Edith Stein to conversion: the reverence shown by a little old lady for the Eucharist. 

St. Edith Stein was mesmerized. Why? Because reverence denotes a belief in the transcendent. It frees us from the muck and enables us to see with our spiritual eyes. Reverence provides us with the humbling grace and gratitude to uproot our hubris and live for Christ. Reverence says, “This is real. I believe it. I live it.”

But when Catholics grow negligent and fail to find offense in the vile, we send a message to those around us that maybe we don’t actually see our Catholic Faith as that big of a deal. After all, what message are our non-Catholic family members receiving when we laugh alongside profane images? What do our fallen-away loved ones hear when we defend the profane at the expense of the sacred? 

You have an audience, people who are taking note, recognizing what it is that you are fostering, standing up for, and committed to defending. 

Is it the sacred or the profane?