A New Pope? Or Leader of Civil Resistance?

Christine Merser, May 9, 2025

“We don’t need a holy man. We need a moral one.” - Christine Merser

So there’s a new pope. Palio. An American, technically, but not one of us. Not in that flag-waving, English-first, “thoughts and prayers” kind of way. He’s soft-spoken. Kind. Spent most of his time in South America. Speaks four languages fluently. English wasn’t one of them when he stepped onto the balcony at St. Peter’s Square. Which is maybe the first message we should listen to.

But let’s start with history, because the Vatican has a long memory, or a long rap sheet. Whatever.

During World War II, Pope Pius XII had the opportunity to intervene, numerous times, to speak out against Hitler and the systematic annihilation of six million Jews. Witnesses told him first hand. Proof was shown. He knew. Everyone knew. And he stayed silent. He chose neutrality? Chose diplomacy? Chose self-preservation over righteousness? Some argue he worked behind the scenes to save a few Jews here and there. But history has largely rendered its verdict. Guilty.

And the Polish Catholic Church? Some of the most virulent antisemitism in all of Europe thrived under their watch. Centuries of blaming Jews for the death of Christ, for plagues, for economic collapse—it wasn’t just tolerated. It was catechism. In the lead-up to and during the war, Polish Catholics often didn’t just stand by—they participated. Where did it come from? Power, fear, indoctrination. The kind that wraps hate in holy cloth.

And now, it’s not just history repeating, in my opinion, it’s geography shifting.

Roughly 23% of Americans identify as Catholic, and among them, white Catholics are one of Trump’s most loyal voting blocs. In 2020, he won about 57% of their votes. Not because he reflects Catholic values, hardly, but because MAGA has fused whiteness, nationalism, and religion into a single identity. It’s the same pattern we saw in Poland before the war. Being Catholic becomes synonymous with being the right kind of citizen. And once that line was drawn, it was weaponized.

Polish Catholicism was nationalism draped in liturgy. And in MAGA America, white Catholicism increasingly serves the same purpose. Not all Catholics, of course—but enough. Enough to shape the silence of bishops. Enough to seat Trump in the front row at Pope Francis’s funeral. Enough to put immigration, pluralism, and basic decency on the back burner so long as the power stays lit.

Enough to make Catholic MAGA zealots, clothed in ‘conservative’ Catholics clothing screaming at the choice. Pope Leo has been posting criticism of Trump and Vance since 2016. How dare he?

Before his death, Pope Francis, who saw the writing on the wall, sent a letter to all Cardinals, imploring them to take a stand. Against fascism. Against the cruelty being normalized in places like the United States. Specifically, he urged them to call out America’s treatment of immigrants.

Their response? They put Donald Trump in the front row on the funeral. Protocol didn’t demand it. Their silence did. Not exactly a final kiss to the ring of power publicly saying the criticism would continue.

And, in one of his final acts, Pope Francis himself may have blurred the message. He granted a private audience to JD Vance. Yes, the same JD Vance who’s doubled down on anti-immigrant rhetoric, aligned himself unapologetically with Trump, and pushed a vision of America that stands in direct opposition to Francis’s own teachings on compassion and inclusion. It was a puzzling move, and not the reinforcement his letter to the Cardinals seemed to call for. A moment that complicated his legacy.

And yet here comes Palio. Made cardinal in 2023. One of Francis’s last moves, perhaps one of his most strategic. Francis appointed 131 of the 242 living cardinals, a staggering 54 percent. He stacked the deck, knowing the stakes.

Palio, it seems, got the memo. He’s already taken to Twitter to call out JD Vance, Donald Trump, and American immigration policy. He’s not afraid to speak. But now he has to act.

So what should he do? Not to worry, I have some ideas.

First? Sound the final bell on harboring sex assaulters still milling around altars all over the world. Do it. Quick and thorough.

Second? Declare every Catholic church and school in America a sanctuary for immigrants. Put action behind the catechism. Turn words into shelter. Do what wasn’t done during WWII, and the church lamented would never happen again. Well, it’s happening again. Shelter them Make those men in black, hiding behind face masks with no paperwork anywhere on their person, knock down some priest, or nun, to get to the children huddling in the parish.

Because this, this is where history is watching. Not when it’s over. Not when we know how many died. But now.

Even David Brooks, who’s not exactly known for revolution, just said it out loud, in the NY Times, just this week.

“It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.

Peoples throughout history have done exactly this when confronted by an authoritarian assault. In their book, “Why Civil Resistance Works,” Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan looked at hundreds of nonviolent uprisings. These movements used many different tools at their disposal — lawsuits, mass rallies, strikes, work slowdowns, boycotts and other forms of noncooperation and resistance.

These movements began small and built up. They developed clear messages that appealed to a variety of groups. They shifted the narrative so the authoritarians were no longer on permanent offense. Sometimes they used nonviolent means to provoke the regime into taking violent action, which shocks the nation, undercuts the regime’s authority and further strengthens the movement. (Think of the civil rights movement at Selma.) Right now, Trumpism is dividing civil society; if done right, the civic uprising can begin to divide the forces of Trumpism.

Chenoweth and Stephan emphasize that this takes coordination. There doesn’t always have to be one charismatic leader, but there does have to be one backbone organization, one coordinating body that does the work of coalition building.”- David Brooks, The NY Times, May 2025

Let it begin with the new Pope. Pope Leo, start the civil resistance here in my country. Lead the millions of Catholics, the 44% who did not vote for this horrible regime, to follow you do the right thing. Protect and shelter those among who are not safe in the hundreds of shelters you own on this land called America. Do it now. Monday morning. Nine o’clock.

If wishes where horses.

Let’s see what kind of pope Palio wants to be. He can speak in gentle metaphors, like Francis. Or he can stand, loudly and clearly, against the rising tide of cruelty, against silence. Against history repeating itself.

The Church failed the first time.

We don’t need a holy man. We need a moral one. - CM