OPINION: If The Pope Can Fight Trump, Why Can’t He Fight For Us?

The current public war of words between Pope Leo XIV and President Trump has left me, and I guess many other Catholics, feeling completely torn. On one hand, I feel the need to defend the dignity of the Church and the Pope’s right to speak truth to power. On the other, I also feel the need to ask hard questions where it matters, especially when you have a President who doesn’t pull his punches when he feels a religious leader is overstepping into national security.

Let me start with what is clear to me. The Pope is not elected to please any president. The papacy is not a political office; it is a spiritual one. Catholics believe the process that produces a Pope is guided by the Holy Spirit, not by political calculations in Washington or anywhere else. So, when any political leader speaks as though the Pope’s emergence is somehow tied to their own influence, I find that deeply troubling. It shows a misunderstanding of what the Church is and how it works.

But as a Catholic, looking at this from a Nigerian perspective, my feelings go deeper than just politics. I feel a profound sense of disappointment that has nothing to do with who is winning the argument and everything to do with whose lives seem to matter most in the Vatican.

The defense for Pope Leo is strong and on paper, I agree with it. He wasn’t elected to please a president; he was elected to lead a church that has stood for 2000 years. His job is to be prophetic, to speak about peace and the poor even when it’s uncomfortable for world leaders. When he says he has “no fear” of the Trump administration, he’s acting in the tradition of saints who stood up to emperors. That is the theory, and as a believer, I respect that office.

But here is where the reality gets painful.

In Nigeria, we have about 115 million Christians, and about 35 million of them are Catholics. These are 35 million souls who look to Rome as their spiritual home. Yet, for twenty years, we have been living through what can only be described as a genocide. Since the start of 2026 alone, over 2,300 people have been unalived in Nigeria, and over 80 per cent of them are Christians. Our villages are being burned, our priests are being kidnapped, and our people are being slaughtered on an industrial scale.

For years, when we begged for the Vatican to speak up with fire and urgency, we were told the Pope has to be diplomatic. We were told he can’t get too political. His comments were always late and frankly, lackluster. It took local leaders like Bishop Anagbe from Benue State to physically go to the U.S. Congress to get anyone to pay attention. The Holy Father seemed remarkably reluctant with speeches while his Nigerian flock was being decimated.

This “diplomatic silence” is a recurring wound in our history. We remember Pope Pius XII, who was heavily criticized for his cautious, balanced words while the horrors of the Holocaust and the murder of thousands of Polish priests unfolded during World War II. He chose the path of the diplomat over the prophet, and the Church is still answering for that silence today.

In contrast, we saw Pope John Paul II find a thunderous, unmistakable voice to oppose the Iraq War in 2003, proving that when the Vatican wants to be heard on the world stage, it can shake the halls of power in Washington. My question to the Holy Father is simple: Why does a disagreement with the White House warrant the “John Paul II energy,” while the industrial-scale slaughter of Nigerians is met with the “Pius XII silence”?

So, you can imagine how it feels now to see Pope Leo XIV suddenly find his political voice. Suddenly, he has plenty to say about U.S. foreign policy. Suddenly, he is assertive and defiant in the media. If the Pope can be this vocal and this fearless when it comes to sparring with President Trump on Truth Social, why couldn’t he find that same energy to stop the killing of Christians in Nigeria?

It feels like a massive double standard. It makes it look like the Vatican is more interested in the high-profile drama of Western politics than the life-and-death survival of black Christians in Africa.

I am not interested in defending the President’s tone. Calling the Pope “weak” is disrespectful to the faith of millions. But the Pope needs to understand that when he chooses to jump into the political arena when it suits him, he loses the right to claim he is “above politics” when it is time to speak up for us.

Fair is fair. If you want to play the role of a political commentator, expect to be treated like one. I want a Pope who is a father to all, not just a critic of some. I want a Pope who realizes that a genocide in Nigeria deserves at least as much “prophetic fire” as a disagreement with the White House.

This shouldn’t be about choosing sides. It should be about balance. The Church must not be silent where it should speak loudly. And politicians must not speak as though they own what they clearly do not.

Until that happens, many of us will continue to feel like we are being left to face the fire alone, while the leaders who should be protecting and speaking for us are busy fighting a war of words that doesn’t save a single soul in Benue, Plateau, or Kwara.

-Young Ozogwu is an Abuja-based public commentator. You can contact him at [email protected]