New York – The US president Donald Trump published an image generated by artificial intelligence of himself dressed as a potato, while the mourning continues for Francisco and only days of the conclave begins to choose his successor. Trump’s action caused a reprimand of a group that represents bishops in New York and among the Italians.
The image, shared on Friday night at Trump’s Truth Social Site and then republiced by the White House in its official X account, caused controversy on social networks and the Vatican, which is still in the period of nine days of official mourning after the death of Francisco, on April 21. The cardinals have been celebrating daily masses in their memory and plan to open the conclave to choose their successor on Wednesday.
The death of a Pope and the choice of another is a matter of maximum solemnity for Catholics, for whom the pontiff is the vicar of Christ on earth. This is even more true in Italy, where the papacy is highly estimated even by non -religious Italians.
The image that shows Trump with a white cassock and a pointed miter, or a bishop hat, was the issue of several questions during the daily information session of the Vatican’s conclave on Saturday. Italian and Spanish news reports lamented bad taste and said it was offensive, since the official mourning period is still ongoing.
Former Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, from the left, said the image was embarrassing. Renzi wrote in X: “This is an image that offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the right -wing world enjoys clowns. Meanwhile, the United States economy runs the risk of a recession and the dollar loses value. Sovereigns are causing damage, everywhere.”
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, declined to comment.
In the United States, the Catholic Conference of the State of New York, which represents the bishops of the State in their work with the Government, accused Trump of Moche.
“Mr. President, there is nothing ingenious or fun in this image,” they wrote. “We have just built our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to choose a new successor of San Pedro. Do not make fun of us.”
The leftist newspaper The Republic of Italy also presented the image on its home page on Saturday with a comment that accused Trump of “pathological megalomania.”
The White House did not immediately answer the questions about the reaction to the image or why the president had shared the image.
The episode occurs after Trump joked last week about his interest in the vacancy. “I would like to be a potato. That would be my first option,” said the president, married three times, who is not Catholic, to journalists.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, joined.
“I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would really be an unexpected candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave to the Catholics who maintain an open mind about this possibility,” Graham, Republican of South Carolina, wrote in X. “The first combination of Papa and President of the United States has many advantages. Mmxxviii! ”
The American vice president JD Vance, who is a Catholic and was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francisco before he died, also joked that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio became a potato, suggesting that Rubio could add it to the long list of titles he owns, including national security and archivist advisor.
Beyond proposing for the position, Trump has also supported cardinal Timothy Dolan, the New York archbishop.
“I have no preference. I must say that we have a cardinal who turns out to be in a place called New York that is very good. So we will see what happens,” he said.
Dolan, 75, is one of the ten American cardinals who will vote in the conclave, but Trump’s proposal could have cost him to support Dolan.
The reason why the conclaves are carried out in secret and the cardinals are isolated meanwhile, is to prevent external secular powers from influencing their choice, as happened in past centuries.
There is an old saying about the Pope’s campaign: “They enter a conclave as potatoes, they leave as cardinals.”
Although Trump attended Francisco’s funeral, he and Vance have collided with the bishops of the United States in general and Francisco in particular on the hard position of the immigration administration and their efforts to deport mass migrants. Just before being hospitalized in February for pneumonia, Francisco issued a strong reprimand to the mass deportation plans of the administration and Vance’s theological justification.
For more than 12 years as Pope, Francisco tried to rebuild the United States Catholic hierarchy more in his image, raising shepherds who prioritized social justice and migration issues over cultural warriors that were more favored by their most doctrinal predecessors, San Juan Paul II and Benedict XVI. A new Pope who is more conservative could reverse that effort.
Trump has nominated as his ambassador to the Holy See to Brian Burch, whose catcholicvote.org has been aggressively covering the days before the conclave in the Vatican. He was one of the main diffusers in the English media of a report, denied resounding and officially by the Vatican, that Cardinal Pietro Parolin had had a health scare last week that required medical care.
Parolin was the Secretary of State with Francisco and is seen as a strong candidate for Pope. He is also the main architect of the Vatican China’s policy and his controversial 2018 agreement with Beijing on bishop’s nominations, an agreement that was strongly criticized by the first Trump administration.
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