San Francisco Frontiers - Pope Leo comes into his own with Trump spat

Leo XIV, the first US pope, had been largely leaving criticism of the Trump administration -- from its warmongering to crackdown on immigrants -- to US bishops.

Elected in May, "from the very start he absolutely did not want to appear as the international anti-Trump personality", Vatican expert Marco Politi told AFP.

Pontiffs traditionally do not interfere in politics.

Leo was also wary of worsening a rift between conservative and reform-minded Catholics that dogged his predecessor Pope Francis.

But the spat may actually help reunite the divided factions, as the Church rallies to defend Chicago-born Leo from Trump's attacks.

Though Leo has pushed for peace from day one, the row has given the head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics "a greater platform", US Vatican expert Elise Ann Allen told AFP.

"This has been Leo all along, but the world is finally waking up to who he is," she said.

Politi said the turning point was Trump's apocalyptic threats of destruction in Iran, after US-Israeli strikes launched a conflagration in the Middle East that has shaken the global economy.

Trump's threats sparked speculation that nuclear weapons could be deployed.

"The risk of dropping an atomic bomb -- Prevost had to step up, and from that moment on he has been increasingly tough," Politi said, referring to the pope by his birth name.

Leo declared Trump's threat "unacceptable" and urged Americans to demand their congressmen "work for peace", prompting a scathing criticism from the US president, who slammed the pontiff as "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy".

- 'Found his voice' -

It was "a mediaeval attack, never in modern times have we seen a head of state attack the Rome papacy so directly," Politi said.

The clash has "given Leo a chance to show his colours in a way that he has not before", Allen said.

A defiant Leo said that he had "no fear" of the Trump administration.

Disoriented Catholics, shocked by Trump -- including his posting of an AI social media image of himself as Jesus -- have rallied around the pope, the analysts said.

After US Vice President JD Vance -- a Catholic -- urged the Vatican to "stick to matters of morality", Leo on Thursday said the world was "being ravaged by a handful of tyrants", and renewed criticism of those who use religion to justify war.

Before this, Leo was seen as "a very sensitive, highly cultured pope, but he wasn't considered as charismatic as Francis or John Paul II," Politi said.

Now he has "become a point of reference for global public opinion... for the majority of nations" which "don't want a policy of brutality like the one pursued by Trump," he said.

Allen said she thinks support for Leo, the voice of morality in a world struggling with a "crisis of conscience", will only grow.

"He's found his footing in the papacy and he has found his voice," she said.

"And I don't think he's going to back down."

C.Williams--SFF