In an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Dahlke warned that such comments could cause confusion.
It is difficult if the pope simply comment on US policy, the theologian said. Already in the improvised interviews of Pope Francis on the plane, it was shown that this could lead to misunderstandings.
Instead, Dahlke suggested: "Leo should do it more like the Queen used to be – don't give interviews and publish a statement once a year. In the media logic, in these arousal spirals, everything else is dangerous."
Theological consistency
Pope Leo XIV had opposed a "shortened and unilateral use" of Christian moral teaching in politics in early October.
Commenting on a controversial church award for U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, the pope said in a conversation with journalists that one should "focus on the entire political work of a senator who has been in the United States Senate for 40 years."
It is important to consider many of the questions related to the teaching of the Church. So it's not really "pro-life," to say "I'm against abortion," but "for the death penalty."
It should also be asked whether someone is a defender of life if he "agrees with the inhumane treatment of immigrants in the United States."
Dahlke sees in the Pope's attitude a theologically consistent line: "This reasoning comes from the Eighties. The then Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Bernardin, has developed an ethical concept called garment seamless ("inseparate guise") that Leo is arguably supporting. It meant that all ethical issues need to be seen in context. So not: against abortion here, for death penalty there."
Benjamin Dahlke is a professor of dogmatics in Eichstätt. In 2024 he published a book on Catholic theology in the USA.