| The pope, the president and the US bishops After President Donald Trump attacked Pope Leo on social media this week, U.S. Catholics, and especially bishops, largely reacted with condemnation and dismay. While it’s not new for presidents and the popes to disagree — especially on matters of war — what’s surprising about the recent spat is how much it has unified the U.S. Catholic bishops and faithful behind the pontiff, after years of division and internal conflict, as RNS reporters Claire Giangravé and Aleja Hertzler-McCain write. Under Pope Francis, U.S. bishops only occasionally criticized him in public, but their organizing body rarely threw its weight behind his priorities. But with Leo, the bishops have gradually ramped up a forceful and united defense of the pope’s critiques of the Trump administration’s policies. “Donald Trump has done more to unite the bishops — generally, not just on the issue of immigration — than they’ve been united in my lifetime,” said Michael Sean Winters, a longtime bishops’ conference observer. Read the full analysis of this new dynamic between the pope, the president and the bishops below. Top Stories | (RNS) — Over nearly the last year, the bishops have gradually ramped up a forceful and united defense of the American pope’s critiques of Trump administration policies. |
 | (RNS) — ‘Throughout both of Trump’s terms, he’s done so many things that I thought were going to be over the line, and it never happens,’ said Matthew Sutton, a scholar of religious history at Washington State University. ‘But this moment, it does feel like a turning point.’ |
 | OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The group’s endorsement by Republican governors — at least eight so far — has stirred debate about free speech in America’s schools, with critics arguing many of the same conservative leaders have sought to silence others with measures to restrict what teachers can say on sex education, LGBTQ+ issues and other topics. |
 | ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Trump has issued repeated broadsides this week against history’s first U.S.-born pope, accusing him of being weak on crime and a captive to the left, and asserting that Leo owed his papacy to Trump. |
Opinion | (RNS) — The story is unglamorous and simple, and somehow the utterly perfect antidote for the cruel zeitgeist of 2026 America. |
 | (The Conversation) — From its earliest centuries, Christianity was bound up with politics, with frequent tensions between government power and religious authority. |
ICYMI | (RNS) — Women have long been more religious than men. But a new study finds the gap closing as more young women under 30 identify as “none” — unaffiliated. |
 | (RNS) — The country’s Episcopal archbishop is back in Khartoum as more people return to rebuild the capital. |
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