Some Catholics in Bucks County who voted for Trump express buyer’s remorse amid conflict between the president and the pope

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Many of the local parishioners filing into pews at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Levittown on Sunday have been following the story of an escalating dispute between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV.

The clash began after the pontiff criticized the United States’ attacks on Iran. Trump responded by calling the pope “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” creating a rare public confrontation between a U.S. president and the Vatican.

For some worshippers, the remarks struck a nerve.

Mike Bolli told WHYY News it was “very inappropriate for [the president] to talk to the pope like that.”

“I mean, come on, have some respect,” he said shortly after arriving for 11 a.m. church services. “I think he needs to apologize, but he’d never apologize for anything that he does, no matter how wrong he is.”

Bolli voted for Trump in 2016, but said he soon realized he made a mistake and voted against him in the last two presidential elections.

Hillary Clinton narrowly won Bucks County in her 2016 run for president, and Joe Biden won it in 2020. However, Trump flipped the Pennsylvania county back in 2024, winning by a few hundred votes.

Cassandra Thornton was one of those that helped put him over the line in that election, but now, Trump’s papal attacks are making her rethink her vote.

“I think he crossed the line,” Thornton said. “I … thought he was going to make a good difference. But after I saw that, I just kind of lost all respect for what he was preaching for America.”

Kelsey Reinhardt, president of the conservative advocacy group CatholicVote, said she understands why many Catholics are upset by the president’s attacks.

“Donald Trump has done enormous things for Catholics and religious liberty in this country, but picking a fight with a spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics in those terms was surprising, shocking, disappointing, unfounded, uncalled for,” Reinhardt said. “I think that Catholics who even supported Trump were wondering why the tone, why the particular rhetoric that was used, because I’ve seen an unprecedented level of reaction to that statement.”

However, Reinhardt urged Catholics to reject the idea they have to choose sides and that it’s inaccurate to see the back-and-forth as a conflict. She pointed out that the Vatican has historically called for peace during times of war and that “context is missing” this time around.

“I think that Pope Leo did something that was surprising in weighing in the way that he did,” she said. “It probably was seen as very political by the Trump administration.”

Bucks County is represented in Congress by a practicing Catholic, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but he released a statement in which he “blasted” Trump’s attacks as an “insult to the Church, an affront to the faithful, and to many Catholics, plainly sacrilegious.”

“Pope Leo has every right—and indeed the solemn responsibility—to speak clearly on matters of faith, conscience, war and peace, and human dignity,” Fitzpatrick stated. “That is his role. And no one—president, politician, or public figure—can intimidate, demean, or bully the Church for carrying out its mission.”

Fitzpatrick, whose district also includes a small part of Montgomery County, won 56% of Bucks County, of which more than 30% of the population is Catholic. That year, Trump carried the Catholic vote by a 12-point margin, according to a report by the Pew Research Center.

However, Fitzpatrick is seen as one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents heading into the 2026 midterms and balances support for the president’s broader agenda with occasional public criticism.

Thornton and her fiancé who joined her for mass, Thomas Black, said the Iran attacks may impact how they vote in the midterm elections, though they acknowledge there are still months to go.

Black, who recently returned from active military service, called Iran “a threat” but said Pope Leo had a right to represent the Vatican’s view on global affairs.

“I think that the pope’s stance has always been peace, and I think that’s a very Catholic view in general,” he said. “And I think that Trump attacking the pope is a very quick way to lose Catholic support.”

Reinhardt said Catholics vote at higher rates than other constituencies, but that it’s still too early to say whether Trump’s attacks on the pope will impact Republicans in November.

“Are Catholics going to remain in the coalition? That’s a question of policies often, not just personality,” she said “I think that that’s one that remains to be seen right now.”

Not everyone at St. Michael on Sunday morning blamed the president for the clash. Bob Gabriel said it was Pope Leo who went too far.

“I respect the pope and all, but in some of his political comments, I don’t think [his comments] are thought out completely,” he said.

Gabriel has been attending the church since 1969. He said he still supports the president and the decision to bomb Iran.

“I think President Trump is doing what he has to do to keep us safe,” he said. “The ones over there with the nuclear bombs, if they have them, we’re all in trouble.”