UD Catholic Officials Comment on Trump Posting Himself Resembling Jesus
Photo via Donald Trump on Truth Social
Jake Villari | Contributing Writer
“Story Description”: President Trump’s AI-generated social media post, appearing to depict him as Jesus, drew criticism from Catholic officials and commentators, including University of Dayton Chaplain Fr. Bob Jones and Catholic theologian Dennis Doyle. Both offered insights into the controversy.
UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON-An April 12 social media post, reportedly sanctioned by President Donald Trump, landed like a match in dry grass.
The AI-generated post to his Truth Social platform, which appeared to depict the forty-seventh president as a Jesus-like figure healing a man in a hospital bed, drew backlash from Catholics and Christians who called it offensive, blasphemous or another example of Trump pushing boundaries. The image arose amid an ongoing dispute with Pope Leo XIV, whose criticism of war and public morality had already increased tensions between the president and the Church.
Father Bob Jones, S.M., a Marianist priest who served as the University of Dayton’s chaplain in campus ministry for the past four years, said he did not want to get drawn into the debate over the image because of its limited potential for a positive outcome.
Instead, Jones, who will become assistant provincial of the Marianist Province of the United States on July 1, called the post “yet another source of divisiveness in our already polarized country” and urged Catholics to respond with “positive dialogue and deep listening” rather than a “nonproductive, winner-take-all debate.”
“In the Marianist tradition of community, I recommend a willingness to stay at the table and make our table larger,” Jones said. “At UD, it would be to make our porches larger during these difficult conversations so that we can listen and learn from each other, which requires patience, perseverance and a lot of humility.”
Dennis Doyle, a Catholic theologian and frequent media source on church issues, took a harder stance.
He called the post “one more indication of the president’s ridiculousness,” and said it crossed a line for a sitting president. Doyle argued that Trump was trying “to be funny for his followers and annoying to his critics.”
Doyle said Catholics should see it as “one drop in the bucket of reasons” to oppose Trump.
The controversy also drew national attention from Catholic officials and news outlets. Reuters, the BBC, CNN and Axios reported that the image sparked immediate criticism from bishops, Catholic officials and some conservative Christians, many of whom viewed it as offensive or blasphemous.
Trump later said he thought the image depicted him as a doctor with ties to the Red Cross, not Jesus, while Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic, said he believed Trump was “posting a joke.” Both explanations, contradicting one another, did little to calm the reaction.
The dispute was about more than one image. For Jones, it was a reminder to answer criticism and division with humility, patience and positive dialogue. For Doyle, it was another sign that Trump had crossed a moral and political line, and that the country’s problems are bigger than one post.
“As a country, we are in a sad state,” Doyle said.