When I learned of President Trump posting an AI-generated image of himself dressed as the pope, I told a CBS reporter that it was dumb, but not bigoted. Here’s why.
What Trump did was analogous to what Whoopi Goldberg did in playing a nun in “Sister Act.” While I have criticized her for some comments she has made about priests, I have never criticized her for “Sister Act.”
There are Halloween costumes of nuns that are playful, but not malicious. I never address them. But I have objected to some that are vulgar. There is a difference. Context matters, and to some extent so does intent.
“Saturday Night Live” had good fun with Trump’s “pope” stunt, and that is all fine and good. On the other hand, it is bizarre to see left-wing Democrats like Bill Kristol getting exercised about Trump, but they never open their mouth when egregious examples of Catholic bashing occur. Just recently, Bill Maher mocked the Eucharist, the heart of Catholicism, and Trump’s critics said nothing.
We don’t play favorites at the Catholic League. I recently wrote a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Ethics Committee asking for a House censure of Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She noted that on April 21 there were “major shifts in global leadership. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God.” As Newsweek reported, that was the day Pope Francis died and Klaus Schwab resigned from the World Economic Forum.
As I said to the House Ethics Committee leaders, “It is obvious that Greene’s remark about God defeating ‘evil’ was aimed at the Holy Father. How can we be sure? In 2022, I asked the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Ethics Committee to sanction Greene for saying, ‘Satan’s controlling the church.’ In short, she has a history of slandering Catholics.”
We are working with the staff of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, supplying them with documents that offer proof of anti-Christian bias stemming from the federal government. We are dealing with serious matters, e.g., legislation that would force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions and sex-reassignment surgery.
What Trump did was silly, but it was hardly an expression of bigotry. We deal with real cases of anti-Catholicism at the Catholic League, not junior league pranks.
