Leo and Faith: Beyond the President's Grasp - A British Catholic's open letter to the President of the United States

Library of Congress photo

A British press article recently referenced American Christopher Hale (who helped lead Catholic outreach for President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign) in an article assessing the current tension between the Vatican and the White House.

In the piece Hale is quoted as saying that Trump is "confused" by the Pope's power and authority, "as it completely overturns how Donald Trump conceives of power".

The highest power of course is demonstrated at the Cross - as the calm willingness to completely renounce all power in order to transform human barbarism into love, by sacrifice. It is little wonder Mr President that you find this conception of power to be utterly unfathomable.

Faith, Mr President, cannot be coerced, silenced, sued in a courtroom or bombed to destruction (or back to the stone ages). It cannot be manufactured in south-east Asia, Silicon Valley or JPL Pasadena. It cannot be commodified, traded on the NASDAQ, copied, patented, bought or sold.

Faith, Mr President is a divine gift. It is fashioned as a gift with the intent of being precisely beyond the grasp of man's acquisitive powers (and 'so that no one can boast', St Paul, Ephesians).

Additionally Mr President, faith is understood only by those who receive it. The grotesque imagery of yourself as Jesus - a depth of mockery surely without precedence since the Praetorium and Golgotha - is regrettably replete with your characteristic hubris and egotism. These sir, are not the imbued properties of sanctifying grace.

It is of great comfort to know that deep within humanity there is a conviction, truth and reality that is beyond the grasp of the money and power of tyrants and presidents.

Craig RA Hesketh
Greater Manchester, UK