Donald Trump has shared an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself dressed as the pope on social media.
The US president‘s post drew rebuke among Italians from a group representing Catholic bishops in New York.
It comes as the mourning of the late Pope Francis continues and just days before the papal conclave is set to begin.
The image, shared Friday night on Mr Trump’s Truth Social profile and Instagram account and later reposted by the White House on its official X account, raised eyebrows on social media and at the Vatican, which is still in the period of nine days of official mourning following Francis’s death on April 21st.
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Catholic cardinals have been celebrating daily Masses in his memory and are due to open the conclave to elect his successor on Wednesday.
The death of a pope and the election of another is a matter of utmost solemnity for Catholics, for whom the pope is Christ’s vicar on Earth.
That is all the more true in Italy, where the papacy is held in high esteem even by non-religious Italians.
The image, which features Mr Trump in a white cassock and pointed mitre, or bishop’s hat, was the topic of several questions during the Vatican’s daily conclave briefing on Saturday.
Italian and Spanish news reports lamented its poor taste and said it was offensive, given that the period of official mourning was still under way.
Left-leaning former premier Matteo Renzi said the image was shameful.
“This is an image that offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the right-wing world enjoys clowning around,” Mr Renzi wrote on X.
“Meanwhile, the US economy risks recession and the dollar loses value. The sovereigntists are doing damage, everywhere.”
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, declined to comment.
In the United States, the New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the bishops of the state in working with government, accused Mr Trump of mockery.
“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr President,” they wrote.
“We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St Peter. Do not mock us.”
Sean Pender, national president of The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) said it was “grossly inappropriate” and a “blatant affront to Catholics”.
“We would expect this kind of juvenile humor from the Cartoon Network, not the Oval Office,” he said. “We remind the president that the United States has a long and shameful history of anti-Catholicism, from the Know Nothings to the Ku Klux Klan.”
“At a time when Catholics feel increasingly under cultural, physical, and institutional attack, the last thing they need is to see their sacred beliefs defamed and exploited for political theater,” he added.
Italy’s left-leaning La Repubblica also featured the image on its home page on Saturday with a commentary accusing Mr Trump of “pathological megalomania”.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the backlash to the image or why the US president had shared the image.
The episode comes after Mr Trump joked last week about his interest in the vacancy.
“I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice,” the thrice-married president, who is not Catholic, told reporters.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Mr Trump, piled on.
“I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!” Mr Graham wrote on X. “The first Pope-US President combination has many upsides. Watching for white smoke…. Trump MMXXVIII!”
Vice-president JD Vance, who is a Catholic convert and was one of the last foreign officials to meet Francis before the pope died, also joked about US secretary of state Marco Rubio becoming pope, suggesting Mr Rubio could add it to the long list of titles he holds, including national security adviser and acting archivist.
Beyond floating himself for the job, Mr Trump also has put in a plug for Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.
“I have no preference. I must say, we have a cardinal that happens to be out a place called New York who’s very good. So we’ll see what happens,” he said.
Cardinal Dolan (75) is one of 10 American cardinals who will be voting in the conclave, but Mr Trump’s pitch might have cost the cardinal support.
The reason conclaves are held in secrecy, with cardinals sequestered for the duration, is to prevent outside secular powers from influencing their choice, as occurred in centuries past.
There is an old saying about campaigning for the job of pope or of being promoted excessively, especially by outsiders: “If you enter a conclave as pope, you leave as a cardinal.”
While Mr Trump attended Francis’s funeral, he and Mr Vance have clashed with US bishops in general and Francis in particular over the administration’s hardline stance on immigration and its efforts to deport migrants en masse.
Right before he was admitted to hospital in February for pneumonia, Francis issued a strong rebuke of the administration’s mass deportation plans and Mr Vance’s theological justification of it.
Over 12 years as pope, Francis tried to remake the US Catholic hierarchy more in his image, elevating pastors who prioritised social justice and migration issues over culture warriors who were more favoured by his more doctrinaire predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
A new pope who is more conservative could reverse that effort.
For his ambassador to the Holy See, Mr Trump has nominated Brian Burch, whose Catholicvote.org has been aggressively covering the pre-conclave days at the Vatican.
It was one of the main disseminators in English-speaking media of a report, flatly and officially denied by the Vatican, that Cardinal Pietro Parolin had a health scare this past week that required medical attention.
Cardinal Parolin was the secretary of state under Francis and is seen as a leading contender to be pope.
He is also the main architect of the Vatican’s China policy and its controversial 2018 deal with Beijing over bishop nominations – a deal that was sharply criticised by the first Trump administration. - Associated Press
