Pope Leo XIV marked his first year as pope with a homily in Pompeii that sought to refocus attention on pastoral accompaniment and peace, even as his pontificate has been pulled into a public clash with President Donald Trump. During the anniversary observances, Leo framed his role as centered on the Gospel rather than debate, while Vatican diplomacy continued to absorb the political friction that has emerged alongside their strained conversation on the Iran war.
The timing came with immediate diplomatic context. Leo spent the eve of the 1-year mark meeting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who came to the Vatican on what was described as a fence-mending visit, as the Trump-Leo back-and-forth has strained relations between the Vatican and the U.S. government. By the end of the visit, both the Vatican and the State Department emphasized their strong bilateral ties, but the episode still pushed the pope beyond his comfort zone and onto the global stage.
In the anniversary homily, Leo invoked a prayer for peace and mercy, saying: “May the God of peace pour out an overflowing abundance of mercy, touching hearts, soothing grudges and fratricidal hatred, and enlightening those who bear special responsibilities of governance.” He reiterated that emphasis on Friday as he marked the anniversary of his election a year earlier.
Alongside the homily, the article described how the pope’s public posture toward Trump has shifted between careful preaching and sharper verbal replies. It said Leo has tried in his first year to insist that his essential role is that of a pastor accompanying his flock, but Trump’s continuing criticisms—and Leo’s increasingly bold retorts—overshadowed the anniversary.
The dispute has also had a specific international dimension. The account tied Trump’s repeated broadsides against “history’s first U.S. pope” to an unprecedented back-and-forth on the Iran war that strained U.S.-Holy See relations. As the story put it, the pope responded after Trump’s latest misrepresentation of his views, telling the issue of criticism to be handled “with the truth.”
The narrative also described Leo as an outgrowth of a different style than Pope Francis. It said the current pope appeared more driven by calm, persistent zeal to preach the Gospel—grounded in what the article described as his Augustinian spirituality that emphasizes community and harmony—rather than by the dramatic, headline-grabbing tensions that often fed Francis’s final years.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the retired archbishop of Washington, gave a more institutional reading of the pope’s priorities and the obstacles to them. Gregory said the challenge for the pope is “to strengthen the unity of the church,” adding that while divisions have long existed, social media has amplified them. In an interview, he said: “Social communication makes it possible for people to take sides, and sometimes taking sides adds to the divisiveness that we have to deal with and that the Holy Father, as the Bishop of Rome, has to respond to,” and he added, “He has to call us to our better angels.”
The account described an episode during Leo’s recent Africa trip in which he temporarily quelled the Trump broadsides by essentially positioning himself as above social media rants. While insisting he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace, Leo said it “is not in my interest at all,” to debate Trump, and he later said his priority for traveling was pastoral—“primarily” coming to Africa “as a pastor,” to be with, celebrate with, encourage and accompany Catholics across the continent.
Beyond the pope’s direct messages, the story highlighted the challenge of reaching U.S. Catholics amid years of heightened political and media attention. It said for many, the shock of an American pope—who is critical of what the article described as America’s actions for much of the time—has persisted, though Anthea Butler, a senior fellow at the Koch Institute at Oxford University, characterized Leo’s approach as less confrontational than Francis’s. Butler said Leo is not coming “full-on like Francis would,” and that he approaches issues “from the side,” by not naming names and “merely” preaching the Gospel.
Other church leaders described what they see as a unifying effect in U.S. Catholic communities as well as the significance of Leo’s communication style. Kerry Alys Robinson, chief executive of Catholic Charities USA, said the pope’s English-language messaging matters, arguing that it is “very different when you are hearing the message without it being mediated through translation.” Ward Fitzgerald, president of The Papal Foundation, similarly linked Leo’s English-speaking presence to outreach and understanding in the U.S. and Europe, saying young people are more able to understand messages when the pope speaks English.
In a homily during the anniversary period, the story reported that Cardinal Timothy Dolan spoke about St. Joseph, describing the saint as a “man of silence” and calling him calm and secure in his place. Dolan said: “A man who exuded a sense of depth and substance. A man who is shy, all right, a man who is focused on his mission,” and he added that the figure was “always attentive to God’s plan.” Dolan then told the Americans in the pews to consider who else fit St. Joseph’s description, and said, “Pope Leo reminds me of Joseph,” in a moment that further underscored the pope’s pastoral framing even as the Trump-Leo dispute remained part of the anniversary backdrop.