Pope Leo Scraps Church Doctrine to Appease Dems

Meeting with Axelrod, "60 Minutes" Trump Bash—Not Coincidental

On April 9 Pope Leo cleared time in his busy schedule to meet with, of all people, Barack Obama’s non-Catholic strategist David Axelrod. “To be clear,” Axelrod posted on X, “I was gratified and honored that Pope Leo XIV granted my request for an audience and thrilled to spend a some time with him last week.” Added Axelrod, the audience was “unrelated to any prospective meeting with President Obama.”

What then was the meeting about? The cynic in me suspects it was to coordinate the Vatican’s ongoing attack on the GOP in the months leading up to the 2026 midterms. On April 10, the day after the Axelrod meeting, CBS announced it was scheduling an “unprecedented” joint interview with three liberal American cardinals to air on April 12. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

To understand just how scandalous this whole affair is requires a little background. Roughly 2,000 years ago, Jesus said to Peter, “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” In making Peter the equivalent of the first pope, Jesus knew better than anyone the human frailty of even the most devoted of his disciples. As Jesus predicted during the Last Supper, Peter proved his cowardice by thrice denying that he even knew Jesus, let alone followed him.

During these last few months, Pope Leo XIV has proven his lack of moral courage on multiple occasions as well. In October, Leo was asked about the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria by Muslim extremists. Conservative estimates put the number of murders since 2009 at 50,000 including 7,000 in 2025 alone.

Said Pope Leo, “In certain areas there is certainly danger for Christians, but for all people. Christians and Muslims have been slaughtered. There is a question of terrorism. There is a question that has to do a lot do with economics.” He then added that the government should seek a way “to promote authentic religious freedom for all people.” Sure, why not?

In February, Leo doubled down on the mush. "I express my prayerful closeness to all the victims of violence and terrorism." He added, "I likewise hope that the competent authorities will continue to work with determination to ensure the safety and protection of the life of every citizen."

In January the Islamic extremists who rule Iran cracked down brutally on the protests by their own people, killing at least 30,000. Said Pope Leo, “My thoughts turn to the situation currently unfolding in the Middle East, especially in Iran and Syria, where ongoing tensions continue to claim many lives. I hope and pray that dialogue and peace may be patiently nurtured in pursuit of the common good of the whole of society.”

To understand the Pope’s weakness, it is helpful to understand the world he lives in. I got a glimpse of this world on April 19, 2005, when the College of Cardinals somehow elected Josef Ratzinger Pope Benedict XVI. At the moment of the announcement I just happened to be in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

On pure impulse, I raised my fist in the air and shouted happily, “I know that guy!” Okay, this was a bit of an overstatement. In 1998, I interviewed the Cardinal in Rome for Pilgrimage, a documentary we produced on the revival of the traditional movement within the Catholic Church, a movement that Ratzinger encouraged.

When an American woman standing next to me in Notre Dame wailed, “This is a terrible day for women,” I remembered that Ratzinger was the bane of liberals everywhere, Catholic or otherwise.

CNN greeted the announcement with a useful summary of all the Cardinal’s perceived failings: “Ratzinger became known as ‘Cardinal No’ because of his drives to crack down on the liberation theology movement, religious pluralism, challenges to traditional teachings on issues such as homosexuality, and calls to ordain women as priests.” The European media were more merciless still. They greeted the election of Pope Benedict XVI with about as much enthusiasm as the American media greeted the election of President Trump, maybe less.

In 2013, Benedict set a useful precedent: he became the first pope in nearly 600 years to step down. Although some suspect a palace coup—he would live for nine more years—Pope Benedict attributed his resignation to"lack of strength, both of mind and body."

Watching from afar—he spent the Benedict/Obama years in Chicago—Father Robert Prevost had to see the beating the pope took from the media and from the leftists within the church. He had to see as well that those same forces greeted Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, as a liberator. Francis not only adopted all the liberal causes du jour—climate change among them—but he also cracked down on the Church’s flourishing traditional movement.

The traditional forces in America presented a problem for the leftists in the Vatican. One of my priests, for instance, matter-of-factly referred to Barack Obama as the “Archbishop of Satan.” Like most traditionalists, he believed that on the issue of abortion alone a Catholic could not vote for a Democrat.

He was in good company. Depriving an innocent human being of life from conception on is “always morally evil,” said Saint Pope John Paul II. “This tradition is unchanged and unchangeable.” There could be no “convenient compromises.” How could there be? “We are dealing,” said the Pope bluntly, “with murder.”

Despite the Church’s “unchanged and unchangeable prohibition,” the Democrats have made a sacred ritual out of abortion and protected it accordingly. During the Biden presidency, the FBI infiltrated traditional Catholic churches and imprisoned abortion protestors on the flimsiest of pretexts. In the wake of the Dobbs decision leak in May 2022, leftist hock troops vandalized or burned as many as 150 Catholic churches or pro-life pregnancy centers.

During their National Convention in Chicago in 2024, Democrats had a mobile abortion clinic parked outside their doors. By this time, the party had added to their official platform several other serious affronts to Catholic doctrine: same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and transgender rights among others.

Catholics noticed. In 2024, 55 percent of voting Catholics cast their ballot for Donald Trump. Among regular churchgoers the percentage was higher still. Even more frightening for Democrats was Trump’s solid performance with Hispanics, most of whom were Catholic-leaning.

Three months into Trump’s second term, Pope Francis died. Here I speculate, but I am confident history will prove me right: leftists within the Vatican selected Prevost, a blank slate, knowing they could bend him to their will. Better still, as an American, he could speak to the nation’s Catholics in a language they understood. Unlike with Francis, there would be no writing off his improvisations to bad translations.

Pope Leo found his backbone attacking Trump. It was so easy. Everyone in his world applauded. Profoundly ignorant of the Iran war and its causes, Leo used his Palm Sunday homily to write President Trump and the American military out of the Christian community.

“Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” said Leo. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” Quoting the Book of Isaiah, the Pope added, "Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Your hands are full of blood."

On the April 12 edition of 60 Minutes, the Cardinals lent their talents to a veritable infomercial for the Democratic Party. The openly leftist Blase Cupich, whom Leo appointed Cardinal, called Trump’s social media posts about the war “sickening” and “dehumanizing.” Cardinal Robert McElroy baldly mischaracterized the administration’s illegal immigrant removal, and Cardinal Joseph Tobin blasted Trump for his "graphic exploitation of sacred imagery,” admittedly an unforced error on Trump’s part.

No one mentioned abortion, which claimed more than a million unborn Americans in 2025 alone. No one mentioned the young lives destroyed by “gender affirming therapy.” No one mentioned the scores of Americans murdered by illegal immigrants. No one even mentioned Sheridan Gorman, the Catholic college student murdered last month by an illegal in Cupich’s backyard.

Unfortunately for the cause, party operatives eclipsed the Cardinals’ moment of fame with a strategic takedown of still another party pervert, Eric Swalwell. In time, though, I think the faux Catholic coup on President Trump will be remembered as the greater scandal. When Church leaders welcome their congregants into the Archbishopric of Satan, they make history.

The Church will survive. For all the frailties of its leaders, it remains the world’s most successful and enduring institution. It will not thrive, however, until Pope Leo steps down.