The MAGA Meltdown: Trump's Team Launches Anti-Catholic Assault on Pope Leo

In a coordinated attack on the Vicar of Christ, MAGA rabble-rousers condemn Pope Leo XIV as a "woke Marxist heretic."

In a conversation about an award for Sen. Dick Durbin’s immigrant advocacy, Pope Leo XIV reminded the world that a genuinely pro‑life witness cannot be reduced to an anti‑abortion slogan.

He noted that someone who opposes abortion yet champions the death penalty or cheers the “inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States” cannot claim to be pro‑life.

Those words hit a nerve because they force American Catholics — especially those embedded in the MAGA movement — to examine moral blind spots.

The pope’s comments follow months of right‑wing agitation over his past criticism of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Before he became pontiff, Cardinal Robert Prevost reposted articles questioning Vance’s claim that Christians must “rank our love for others” and criticized Trump’s flirtation with using a Salvadoran prison accused of human‑rights abuses to detain migrants.

Those posts stirred immediate condemnation from MAGA activists like Laura Loomer and Charlie Kirk, who labeled the new pope “anti‑Trump, anti‑MAGA” and a “globalist”.

That discontent festered after his May 8 election and set the stage for this week’s full‑frontal assault.

On Wednesday, the Holy Father presided over the 10th‑anniversary celebration of Laudato Si’ and challenged climate sceptics.

He lamented that some leaders “ridicule those who speak of global warming,” recalled Pope Francis’s teaching that caring for creation is an urgent and existential moral concern, and insisted that Christians cannot love God while “despising his creatures.”

Those remarks, along with his earlier comments about the death penalty and immigration, underscore that Leo sees climate change and care for the poor as among the greatest moral issues of our time.

For Catholics formed by a consistent ethic of life, this is common sense.

For a movement that equates pro‑life politics with overturning Roe v. Wade and deregulating polluters, it feels like a rebuke.

The backlash was swift and ugly.

MAGA influencers used social media to accuse the pope of being a Marxist and compared him to globalist conspiracies.

They mockingly asked whether the Church would excommunicate people for “supporting border enforcement” rather than for procuring abortions.

Such rhetoric betrays a deep misunderstanding of Catholic social teaching, which has always tied the protection of unborn children to the defense of migrants, prisoners, and creation.

Of course, the new pope opposes abortion yet urges action on climate change—positions that mirror centuries of Catholic teaching rather than any political party.

At Letters from Leo, we refuse to let the MAGA rabble-rousers define and attack our faith.

Pope Leo stands in continuity with John Paul II and Francis in insisting that being pro‑life means defending “all that is fragile and wounded.”

The MAGA movement’s first major offensive against him since his election will not be the last, but Catholics faithful to the Gospel should welcome his leadership.

In a time of culture‑war rage, he is reminding us that the Church’s moral witness transcends partisan allegiances and calls us to care for the poor, the excluded, the unborn, the condemned, migrants, and our common home.

Letters from Leo is open to anyone who wants to be informed and inspired by our pope — and to turn that inspiration into action that leaves America and the world more just, less cold, and more alive with hope.

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