Holy See issues milquetoast response to assassination attempt
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The Vatican has refused to name Donald Trump after he was shot in an assassination attempt on Saturday .
A statement issued by the Holy See Press Office on Sunday intentionally omitted Trump's name.
"The Holy See expresses its concern about last night's violence which hurts people and democracy, causing suffering and death," it announced.
"It joins in the prayer of the U.S. Bishops for America, for the victims and for peace in the country that the motives of the violent may never prevail," it added.
The statement was not sent to journalists or included in the Vatican's daily bulletins.
Pope Francis did not refer to the assassination attempt in his Sunday Angelus address.
Instead, the pope prayed for "all populations who are oppressed by the horror of war."
"Please, let us not forget tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Myanmar," he added.
Faithful Catholics, including prominent figures and priests, lambasted the Vatican on social media.
"Bergoglio's Vatican can't even bring themselves to name President Donald Trump, or his wife, Melania, who is a Catholic, or his children," popular author and Catholic deacon Nick Donnelly tweeted.
"This blanking of President Trump and his family drips with contempt. Bergoglio's Vatican is globalist, not Catholic," Deacon Donnelly added.
Catholic commentator and media celebrity Raymond Arroyo noted how "the Vatican in its first official comment on the attempted assassination of former President Trump ... assiduously avoids mentioning Donald Trump's name."
"A missed opportunity to bring healing and grace out of this chaos," Arroyo wrote, sarcastically adding Pope Francis' oft-repeated mantra of inclusion: "Everyone. Everyone. Everyone."
"Since Pope Francis hangs out with all kinds of Yankee-hating Spanish and Latin American Marxists, it was perhaps a relief that he never got around to mentioning Mr. Trump in his chilly statement about last night's failed assassination," historian and author Tom Gallagher tweeted.
"If American bishops, many of them not noted for their sympathy for Trump, can pray for him after this attempt on his life; and if the UK Prime Minister, not a political soulmate, can express his concern, you might expect the Vatican at least to mention his name," British priest Fr. Mark Elliott Smith, posted on X.
"It was not an act of violence it was an assassination attempt against a former president. This omission is grave," American priest Fr. Paul John Kalchik lamented.
It is customary for popes to use their weekday public audience or the Sunday Angelus to call attention to significant international events.
In a Nov. 23, 1963 statement following John F. Kennedy's assassination, Pope Paul VI said he was "profoundly saddened by so dastardly a crime, by the mourning which afflicts a great and civilized country" and "by the suffering which strikes at Mrs. Kennedy, the children and her family."
During a general audience on June 5, 1968, following the shooting of Robert Kennedy, Paul VI expressed sorrow at the incident, saying, "we deplore this manifestation of violence and terror and pray for the life and health of the men who are suffering in service to the public service of his country."
After Kennedy's death, on June 6, Paul VI in his Angelus address said, "We would do well to remember his actions in favor of the poor, the dispossessed, the segregated, the need for urgent progress, and, in a word, social justice."
Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Dr. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
As satan can't endure the Name of the Theotokos, neither can to pope utter the name of Trump.