Instead of standing beside Donald Trump at a flag\u2011draped celebration of America\u2019s 250th anniversary, Pope Leo XIV is expected to stand on the rocky shores of Lampedusa, greeting exhausted migrants stepping off crowded boats.<\/p>\n
The contrast is deliberate and unmistakable: one leader marking national power, the other highlighting human vulnerability. For the first American pope, birthplace is not destiny; conscience is.<\/p>\n
His years as a missionary in Peru, his sharp criticism of mass deportations, and his warnings against a \u201cdiplomacy based on force\u201d have brought him into open tension with Washington.<\/p>\n
A summoned envoy at the Pentagon, a declined July 4 invitation, and a Vatican official quietly suggesting he may never visit the U.S. under this administration all point in one direction.<\/p>\n
This is not a scheduling dispute. It is a moral line, drawn in public, and held in silence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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