Maga Catholics hope for a ‘Trump-style Pope’: ideological clash after Francis’ death

In the US, conservatives close to Trump hope for a less progressive pontiff. But the composition of the conclave seems to favour a continuity with Francis’ reformist agenda

The death of Pope Francis has rekindled tensions within the Catholic world, particularly in the United States, where a section of the electorate close to Donald Trump – the so-called Maga Catholics – looks to the upcoming conclave with the hope of a reversal. The declared objective is to elect a pontiff who will openly oppose the reformist openings of the Argentine pope, in favour of a more rigid line adhering to traditional doctrine.

Summing up this position is Jesse Romero, a Catholic podcaster from Phoenix, who has called for ‘a Trump-style pope’, capable of restoring Christian values according to a more conservative interpretation. Even harsher criticism came from Roger Stone, Trump’s historic advisor, who called the posthumous praise of the pontiff ‘nauseating’ and even questioned his legitimacy.

The opposition to Francis’ pontificate is rooted in a series of choices deemed unacceptable by large conservative sectors: the blessings to homosexual couples, the commitment on climate change, the openness to migrants, the liturgical reform with the downsizing of the use of Latin. A discontent that has structured itself over time, also fostered by a generational change among the American clergy: a recent survey by the Catholic Project indicates that over 80% of priests ordained since 2020 define themselves as conservative.

Universities such as the Franciscan University of Steubenville and Ave Maria University have formed a new traditionalist ecclesiastical elite, increasingly influential in US Catholic circles.

But Francis, even in the last years of his pontificate, has responded firmly to these thrusts: he removed the Texan bishop Joseph Strickland, revoked the Vatican salary and lodgings of Cardinal Raymond Burke, author of the notorious ‘dubia’ on Amoris Laetitia, and openly condemned the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The future of the Church will be decided at the conclave, but the majority of US cardinal electors – six out of ten – were appointed by Francis himself and largely share his pastoral vision. ‘It is more likely that the next pope will be a Francis II,’ admitted John Yep, leader of the Catholics for Catholics group.

Nevertheless, Maga Catholics are not giving up their cultural battle: they dream of a pontiff capable of ‘healing the fractures in the Church’ and curbing, in their view, modernist tendencies. But for now, at least in the College of Cardinals, the numbers seem to be in favour of continuity.

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