Catholic Conservatives Face a Choice

Pope Leo XIV’s public rebukes of President Trump over the Iran war and immigration have broken the tacit bargain that made Catholic intellectuals a bridge to the Republican right. Conservative Catholics now confront a visible decision: follow papal moral limits on war and migration or remain aligned with a GOP that relies on hawkish foreign policy and populist aesthetics. — If the church’s moral authority chips away Republican cover for hawkish policy, it could realign a voting bloc, alter GOP messaging on foreign policy, and reshape how religious institutions mediate political commitments.