William Cash reports from Rome on how Trump’s inner circle of Catholic leaders is trying to shape the future of the Church When President Trump and his Catholic First Lady attended the funeral of Pope Francis, it signalled how religion has returned to the forefront of US politics. The last US president to attend a papal funeral was George W Bush, for Pope St John Paul II in 2005. Trump’s ‘Catholic’ predecessor, Joe Biden, did not attend the 2023 funeral of the ultra-conservative Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. This was mainly because Benedict was not pope at the time, and Biden had been advised by the US ambassador to the Holy See that the Vatican was ‘downplaying’ the funeral and that they did not really want the president there. In other words, it was all about papal politics. Trump was voted back into the White House by 59 per cent of America’s 60 million Catholics. Although there is no chance of the first American pope in history appearing on the balcony of St Peter’s after the upcoming conclave – which begins on May 7 at 4.30pm in the Sistine Chapel with a single vote on the first day – the truth is that America’s influence on the Church cannot be ignored. Its warring factions have made the United States a battleground for the future of global Catholicism. This was made clear to me by Steve Cortes – political adviser to Brian Burch, Trump’s nominee to be the next US ambassador to the Holy See – who has been in Rome with Burch, the president of CatholicVote, a group instrumental in helping to return Trump to the White House. Cortes is a former senior adviser to President Trump and JD Vance, and is widely regarded as America’s leading Catholic voting strategist.   Speaking about the political significance of Burch’s confirmation in shaping future US-Vatican relations – regardless of who is elected pope – Cortes told The Sunday Times: “Both America and the Church have profound missions in the world. The US is the most powerful political entity on earth, and the Catholic Church is the most significant spiritual institution. As such, there is cause for real optimism about a closer alliance with the transition to a new pope as Trump begins his new term in office.” This week in Rome has been a papal political hustings, with cardinals from all factions dining and meeting in trattorias in the Borgo Pio area, or holding discreet gatherings in Vatican apartments – such as the top-floor flat where Cardinal Müller now lives, previously occupied by Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI. The aim has been to form alliances, often based on language or regional voting blocs – such as the 18 ‘red hat’ votes from African cardinals or the 12 Portuguese-speaking cardinals, including those from Portugal and Brazil. If a black papabile such as Cardinal Sarah emerges as a leading contender after the first vote on Wednesday afternoon, it will likely be because the African cardinals have voted as a bloc for the first time. With no chance of securing the first American pope, and the College of Cardinals heavily stacked by Pope Francis to ensure his legacy continues, a faction of American Catholics close to Trump – led by Burch, Cortes and Tim Busch, founder of the conservative Catholic think tank the Napa Institute – have spent the past few years preparing the ground. Their hope is not necessarily for a radically political pope, but at least a unifying pastoral figure – ideally a conservative – who can help end the bitter spiritual civil war that, to quote a New York Times headline, is “tearing the Catholic Church apart in America”. Some American Catholics, such as Michael La Civita – brother of Chris La Civita, who ran Trump’s 2024 campaign – are hoping that bridges might be mended once a new pope is elected. La Civita is a respected Catholic figure in the US, and a senior director of CNEWA, the New York-based papal humanitarian charity for the Middle East, founded in 1926 by British Monsignor Richard Barry-Doyle – a relative of Stonyhurst-educated detective writer Arthur Conan Doyle. La Civita believes that 60-year-old Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, whom he has met several times in the Holy Land, would be a welcome choice for American Catholics. “The pope is the ultimate bridge builder, pontifex maximus. And that is what a true pastor does – he builds bridges. He is not a partisan political figure at all, and we should not waste much energy exploring what those who hold political office want.” Yet the truth is that Trump’s return to power was aided by a small circle of influential, well-funded conservative Catholics – including politically astute operators like Burch and Cortes. Brian Burch and his wife Sarah were seen around Rome last week, including at the reception of the US-based Papal Foundation (membership costs $1 million), where Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York publicly congratulated Burch on his nomination by Trump. If Burch appeared slightly anxious during the Apri...