On Politics: The Pope and the President
From The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books
April 23, 2026 · 1h 2m
About this episode
The episode discusses the escalating conflict between the pope and the American right, examining the Catholic Church's influence and challenges in contemporary politics.
When commenting on the power and influence of the Catholic Church, Stalin is supposed to have asked: ‘how many divisions has the pope?’ Donald Trump has yet to question how many F35s Leo XIV has, but he may as well have done in his angry response to the American pope’s criticism of the US and Israel’s attack on Iran. With the US president’s supporters invoking the Catholic theory of ‘just war’ to defend the bombing of Iran, and the claims of Silicon Valley to offer their own paths to salvation, the Church of Rome faces multiple challenges to its role as a moral and diplomatic force. To consider why the conflict between the pope and the American right has escalated so quickly in the past few weeks, James is joined by Massimo Faggioli, a professor in ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute at Trinity College Dublin, and Jack Hanson, an associate editor at the Yale Review. They also discuss the nature of papal authority and its evolution since the loss of the papal states in 1870, and whether we’re seeing the return of faith to the public sphere or simply the shattering of a consensus about what constitutes religion. Read more on politics in the LRB: https://lrb.me/lrbpolitics From…
People in this episode
Host: James
Guests: Massimo Faggioli, Jack Hanson
Topics covered
- Catholic Church
- politics
- papal authority
- just war theory
- US foreign policy
- religion in public sphere
Keywords
- Catholic Church
- Donald Trump
- just war
- papal authority
- politics
- religion
- Iran
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Catholic Church, Silicon Valley, Loyola Institute, Yale Review
Places: United States, Iran
More episodes of The LRB Podcast
- Poetry and the Turning World: Work · June 10, 2026 · 1h 5m
- On Politics: Myths of Populism · June 3, 2026 · 1h 12m
- Jane Austen's ‘Emma’ and the art of misreading · May 30, 2026 · 1h 8m
- Gaza after the Ceasefire · May 27, 2026 · 1h 10m
- A Rough Guide to Money Laundering · May 20, 2026 · 46 min
- When will AI replace us? · May 14, 2026 · 43 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The LRB Podcast podcast page.