For the first eight months of his papacy, many Catholics wondered exactly who Pope Leo XIV was and what he stood for.
His pronouncements were cautious, his smile shy, his modest demeanour a radical departure from the fiery, impetuous pontificate of Pope Francis, his Argentine predecessor.
But that has changed. The Pope has found a voice – and a fire in his belly. And it is all down to one man: Donald Trump.
In recent weeks, the US president has flung a torrent of insults and criticism at the Pope, calling him “terrible for foreign policy”, an apologist for Iran and “weak” on crime.
But the Pope has fought back, with some Vatican-watchers arguing that the political war of words has been the making of the new pontiff.
“Leo has come out with a voice and a directness that was not there before,” Massimo Faggioli, a Vatican expert and professor of theology at Trinity College Dublin, told The Telegraph. “Trump has given him a boost.”
The Pope condemned a threat by Mr Trump to destroy Iranian civilisation as “truly unacceptable” and declared that he was “not afraid” of the Trump administration.
The latest ill-tempered exchange came on Tuesday, when Mr Trump claimed, falsely, that the Pope was happy to see Iran develop nuclear weapons, saying: “He’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people.”
The pontiff’s response was forthright. The president had misrepresented his stance on Iran, which was to call for dialogue and a peace deal, he said, and he effectively called the president a liar.
“The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticise me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” he said.
All this makes the task of Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, a lot more challenging when he arrives in Rome on Thursday, on a mission to rebuild bridges with the Vatican.
He will meet the Pope amid the marble and tapestries of the Apostolic Palace, in an encounter that will be closed to journalists.
“The clash between Trump and Leo is much more direct now than it was between Trump and Francis. It’s become a constant back and forth between the Vatican and Washington DC. It’s very unusual. We have not seen anything like it in modern times,” said Prof Faggioli.
Catholics ‘disappointed in Trump’
The president’s attacks on the Pope are not only unprecedented for a US leader. They may also cost him crucial Catholic votes at the midterms in November.
According to a new poll commissioned by The Washington Post, ABC and Ipsos, nearly 60 per cent of Americans had a negative reaction to Mr Trump’s false claim about the Pope saying “It’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.
Meanwhile, two out of three Americans reacted positively to the Pope asking Americans to contact Congress to work for peace and reject war.
The meeting also comes after Mr Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as Christ, laying his hand on a dying man, against a backdrop of celestial light, fighter jets and soaring eagles, outraging many believers.
Some 87 per cent of Americans took a negative view of the Trump-as-Jesus image, according to the poll. Even among Republican voters, the unease was profound – 79 per cent had a negative reaction to the president’s portrayal of himself as the Messiah.
Mr Trump won the white Catholic vote by a more than 20-point margin in the 2024 presidential election. But his approval rating with that group is down in the new poll, at 49 per cent, compared with 63 per cent in February last year.
His approval rate stands at 38 per cent for all Catholics, a 10-point drop since then. His overall approval rating among Americans is now at 37 per cent.
“It’s not that Catholics are necessarily offended or scandalised,” said Prof Faggioli. “It is part of mounting discontent with Trump across a range of issues, from the price of gas to the war in Iran. It’s just one more thing that makes them feel disappointed with Trump.”
Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest who edits America, a Catholic magazine, told Italian media this week: “On the one hand, Trump claims that he is a religious man, a devoted Christian. On the other, he attacks the Pope in the most disrespectful way possible and publishes a photo of himself as Jesus.”
Mr Trump’s attacks on the Pope were regarded as so offensive that one Vatican official remarked that, under former pontiffs, the meeting with the secretary of state would have been scrapped.
“Up until a little time ago, probably during the pontificates of John Paul II and Francis, the encounter with Rubio would have been cancelled,” said Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the head of a Vatican dicastery, or department, that deals with the awarding of sainthoods.
“Receiving Rubio in a geopolitical situation that is so worrying is a sign that he is open to dialogue.”
Michele Pennisi, an Italian archbishop from Sicily, said that the Chicago-born pontiff was anxious not to “abandon his fellow Americans to the wayward and dangerous leadership of Trump”.
But Father Martin, the Jesuit editor, said the Vatican and the Pope were experts at dealing with every type of political leader. “They have been since the days of Charlemagne,” he said. “They know what they’re doing.”
