No, it’s not this meme that dishonors the Papacy.

por Jaime Gurpegui | 03 mayo, 2024

Social media is boiling over. An image of Donald Trump dressed as the Pope, posted by the official White House account, has outraged the most sensitive Catholics. “A disgrace!” they cry. “An outrage against sacred symbols!” Some are even demanding official apologies.

Let’s take a breath.

Is this really what dishonors the Papacy? An image? A meme? A photoshopped picture, more or less clever, more or less irreverent?

It’s hard to take such outrage seriously when we’ve spent years—decades—watching the Papacy used as a political tool, a platform for ideology, a megaphone for agendas that have little or nothing to do with the deposit of faith. Where were these offended souls when Rome invited abortionists and pro-euthanasia advocates to give lectures at the Vatican? Where were they when dictators and tyrants were whitewashed under the pretext of “dialogue”? How many eyebrows were raised when the Vicar of Christ promoted the UN’s “global education pact” or applauded the architects of the “Great Reset”?

Are we seriously going to clutch our pearls because an American politician—Trump or anyone else—appears caricatured as Pope, when we’ve watched in silence the systematic trivialization of the Petrine ministry?

And the irony: it was Donald Trump himself who most suffered from the political weaponization of the Papacy. Have we forgotten when, from the very seat of Peter, his Christianity was questioned because he defended the right to legitimate border control, as taught by the Catechism? Have we forgotten when Trump and Kamala Harris were put on the same moral plane, urging Catholics to “choose the lesser evil” in the election, equating someone who defended life with someone who promoted its destruction? Have we forgotten when Vatican corridors became the stage for an open campaign against Trump, taking the Lord’s name in vain to push worldly agendas?

No, this meme isn’t what dishonors the Papacy. It has been dishonored by those who’ve instrumentalized the Pope to undermine the West, to weaken its Christian identity, to embrace globalism, to whitewash sin under friendly names like “inclusion” or “welcome.”

Respect for sacred signs begins at home. It’s hard to demand reverence when the Vatican itself has mocked the missal, the rubrics, the millennia-old liturgy. It’s hard to ask for solemnity when we’ve tolerated Pachamamas in churches, syncretistic ceremonies, “blessings” of sin, and “holy doors” opened for political correctness.

Is the image in poor taste? Yes. But it’s ultimately just a joke. What we’ve witnessed in recent years, however, is no joke—it’s been a deliberate dismantling of the Papacy’s moral authority. And many who now tear their garments were silent—or applauded—when Rome sent confusing messages about homosexual unions, communion for adulterers, or abortion as a “lesser sin” in the context of poverty.

We may not like seeing Trump dressed as Pope, fair enough. But don’t pretend this image is the pinnacle of irreverence. Because what has truly desacralized the Papacy isn’t a meme—it’s the use and abuse of the Papacy to promote an ideology foreign to the faith, compliant with the world, surrendered to Caesar.

No, we don’t like this meme. We don’t find it funny. But respect for the Papacy hasn’t been guaranteed for a long time. And it wasn’t Trump’s fault.