If the Pope does not understand that someone is attempting to use him in a political game directed against the President of the United States, it is not easy to help him. He appears to walk straight into the trap and uses words and expressions associated with the Left and woke ideology. Marxists are experts in using words such as “neo-colonialist”. Why must the Pope use such words?

If you condemn “violations of international law” committed by “neo-colonialist world powers”, there is little doubt whom you mean.

When you additionally clash with Trump and criticise the war in Iran, you have become an actor in world politics. Is that wise?

The Left is, of course, delighted. But compliments from that quarter are polarising. There is a proliferation of liberal prelates who have no scruples about throwing themselves into the political struggle. They are manipulative.

– Pope Leo establishes himself as a moral leader at a global level, says Bishop John Stowe in Lexington in the American state of Kentucky.

Stowe is president of an American Catholic peace organisation. He believes the Pope’s latest messages carry more weight when delivered in Africa, in direct encounters with people who have experienced war, violence, hunger, and chronic poverty.

The Pope has allowed himself to be lured onto thin ice.

But when the Pope addressed thousands of Catholics in Cameroon on Thursday, Leo continued to criticise the state of the world and world leaders “who spend billions on killing and destruction”.

– The world is ravaged by a handful of tyrants, he stated, and took issue with those who manipulate religion for their own “political, economic, and military gain”.

– It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be condemned and rejected by every honest conscience, he said.

Tyrant is what the Democrats have called Trump. To say that religion is being manipulated can only be directed at Christian conservatives. Surely no one would claim that those on the Left use religion politically? Leo has now positioned himself firmly on the Left, so firmly that he himself does not appear to be aware of where he stands.

It is one of the Achilles’ heels of the Left that they cannot see the wood for the trees. They are so convinced of their own moral superiority that they are unable to perceive their own bias. Instead, they experience it as truth. At that point, it begins to become dangerous for one who sits in Peter’s Chair. A Christian leader must above all be humble.

There is an abundance of well-meaning advisers, and Leo ought to know that they come in sheep’s clothing. When an “expert” believes he should condemn Trump in order not to end up in the same situation as Pius XII, who is reproached for not having spoken out against Hitler, alarm bells ought to ring.

Massimo Faggioli, who is an expert on the papacy, uses Pope Pius XII as an example. He was Pope during the Second World War and led a secret network that hid Jews to prevent them from being sent to concentration camps and killed. Today, he is nevertheless criticised by some for not having spoken out loudly enough about the ongoing genocide.

– There is always a spectre of Pius XII hanging there, says Faggioli, who is a professor at Trinity College in Dublin, which he believes may explain why Pope Leo has now decided to speak more loudly and clearly.

– I do not think he wants the Vatican to be accused of being too cautious towards Trumpism because he is American, he adds.

This is a distortion of history. Pope Pius XII was first nuncio to Berlin—a papal envoy—and later became Pope. He was the one who concluded the concordat with Hitler, whereby the Church refrained from challenging the regime in exchange for being left in peace. When the persecution of the Jews intensified, the Vatican was among the best informed in all of Europe, yet the Pope said nothing. To say that he is criticised by “some” is an understatement of enormous proportions.

In the film “Nuremberg”, which is showing in Norwegian cinemas, the American prosecutor Jackson approaches Pope Pius to request support for legal proceedings. Pope Pius refuses outright, citing that it would constitute interference in politics. He turns on his heel and leaves. Jackson calls after him: So you would rather go down in history as the one who concluded a concordat with Hitler and closed your eyes to what happened? The words strike the Pope like a lash, and Jackson receives the support he came for.

It is true that towards the end of the war, when the Germans had taken over and began the hunt for Italian Jews, the Pope opened monasteries and hid many Jews. But that could not erase the fact that the Pope knew about the Holocaust as one of the first in Europe.

Now Pope Pius is being used as a weapon to pressure the present Pope into speaking out against Trump. If Leo believes that he can wash away the sins of the past by condemning a president who is in the process of creating peace in the Middle East and taking on drug cartels, he is gravely mistaken and entirely lacks political judgement.

A Pope ought to resist flattery so as not to be led astray:

– Normally, Popes and the Vatican are cautious when it comes to international politics; they prefer diplomacy to public criticism, says John Thavis, a retired Vatican correspondent who has covered three pontificates, to the news agency Reuters.

Criticism of power has become a fashionable term, but when it comes from those who themselves are powerful, it is of little worth.

With his latest statements, Leo may have expressed himself more forcefully than both Pope Francis and any previous Pope, John Thavis believes.

– Other Popes, including Pope John Paul II and Francis, have spoken about the danger of ideological tyrannies and neo-colonialism. But when Leo says that the world is ravaged by a handful of tyrants, I think it appears to be a much more direct challenge to the leaders of powerful countries, he says.

We did not need further instances in which the Pope openly stands on the progressive side. The conservative movement will not be halted, but the Pope could have earned merit by acknowledging that people love their country, their land, and their history. The Church is part of this. Now it is experienced as though the Pope is abandoning them.

This is occurring at the beginning of persecutions of Christians also in Europe. Pope Leo disappointed greatly through his inaction during the Africa trip.

Will he repeat his predecessor’s inaction in the face of evil?

The liberals refuse to see it, or they are allied with it.

That is why they hate Trump.