ROME, 11 April 2026 — U.S. Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke has downplayed what many in the media have described as growing tensions between the Vatican and the U.S. Trump administration, arguing that “the narrative of an ongoing clash is exaggerated.”
In an interview published today in Il Giornale, Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni speaks with the American cardinal ahead of this evening’s Prayer Vigil for Peace in St. Peter’s Basilica. The vigil was announced by Pope Leo earlier this week outside Castel Gandolfo, in remarks to reporters after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that “a whole civilization would die” if Iran failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
In this interview—published in English translation with the author’s permission—Cardinal Burke addresses what some have framed as a widening divide “between the two most important Americans”—President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV.
The Pope Will Never Be a Hero of the Anti-Trumpers
By Nico Spuntoni
Hard times on the Vatican—Washington axis. The war is driving apart the two most important Americans: Donald Trump and Robert Prevost. This is no minor issue in a country where the Catholic electorate played a significant role in Trump’s victory. Some are already licking their chops, sensing in the current circumstances the possibility of “crowning” Leo XIV as Trump’s sworn enemy, as had been hoped since immediately after his election. Yet Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a leading figure among conservative Catholics in America (and beyond), shows in this interview how one can remain loyal to the Pope without being hostile to the Trump administration.
Your Eminence, will you be at St. Peter’s today for the peace vigil?
Certainly. I will join the Holy Father for this fundamental moment of prayer in a time of crisis like the present. I am very glad to respond to the call to pray that peace may be restored as soon as possible. We must follow what was revealed at Fatima in 1917 and recite the Rosary to Our Lady, who is Queen of Peace.
Do you agree with those who say that Leo XIV is turning out to be an anti-Trumper?
The narrative of an ongoing clash is exaggerated. The Pope has invited everyone to work for peace, as he rightly should. His compass is the teaching of the Church, found in the Catechism and as classically articulated by Saint Augustine.
How do you judge Trump’s conduct?
One may have differing views on how to address the problem, but one certainly cannot think that the situation in Iran was good prior to the attacks by the United States and Israel. I believe that, in his view, Trump also has peace as his goal—meaning he seeks to restore internal peace in Iran and in its relations with other nations. This is because the regime represents a nuclear threat to both its neighbors and others. And then, let me add something…
Please…
We must also pray for the freedom of the Iranian people, who have suffered for too many years at the hands of the ayatollahs’ regime. We cannot forget the many civilians killed over the years by repression. It is painful to see a great nation, with a rich cultural heritage, destroyed by such a bloodthirsty regime.
You have historically enjoyed good relations with Republican administrations and are very popular among the MAGA base. Would you be open to playing a role in facilitating dialogue between the Holy See and the United States?
I am willing to help in any way. However, I am not a diplomat and would not be the right person. Moreover, I believe that talk of tensions is exaggerated. The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a devout Catholic, is already doing everything possible to foster dialogue between the two sides. The important thing is that the door remains open and that there is always a way to speak, to see how the Church can help bring about reconciliation among nations.
So it is not true that Trump’s America and Leo’s Church are opposed?
No. There is great respect for the Church in America, and Catholics have always contributed greatly to the life of the nation in every respect. For a long time, there was an anti-Catholic prejudice claiming that we wanted the Pope to govern the country. But doctrine has never taught that the Church must govern. We Catholics follow the Lord’s teaching to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. The Church teaches moral principles but then leaves to those in authority the proper competence to make decisions.
Cardinal Burke is completely right saying that nobody can consider the situation in Iran as good and normal before the Americans and Israel decided to attack Iran. One doesn't need to be a historian to understand that. The many terrorist attacks in the world and in the West in the past 50 years or so especially after 9/11 speak for themselves. Sadly, some Catholics seem to prioritise their own political preferences to the safety and well being of the suffering and freedom loving Iranian people and even the safety in their own countries.
I will, as always, pray for peace. An enduring peace.
Although the Church and the State are two distinct societies, their strict separation is absurd and unnatural. Man is not divided into a Christian and a citizen. He must be a Christian not only in his private life, but in every facet of his life. Thus he must pursue a Christian politics by striving to bring civil laws into accord with the divine laws. Pius IX condemned the proposition that the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church [Condemned Proposition 55 from the Syllabus of Errors: Dec. 8 1864].
This pernicious error and false thesis was also addressed by Pope Leo XIII: “As soon as the State refuses to give to God what belongs to God, by a necessary consequence it refuses to give to citizens that to which, as men, they have a right; as, whether agreeable or not to accept, it cannot be denied that man's rights spring from his duty toward God. Whence it follows that the State, by missing in this connection the principal object of its institution, finally becomes false to itself by denying that which is the reason of its own existence. These superior truths are so clearly proclaimed by the voice of even natural reason, that they force themselves upon all who are not blinded by the violence of passion." [Leo XIII, Encyclical: Au milieu des sollicitudes, Feb. 16, 1892. (PE 119; 28)]