It is not unusual for President Trump to face criticism from Catholic leaders.
His hardline immigration policies, promised in his campaign and cheered on by supporters, have prompted condemnation from church leaders.
For months it has put the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the US at odds with more right-leaning rank-and-file Catholics.
But the broad backlash in the last 48 hours, over Trump's attack on Pope Leo and his sharing of an AI image of himself as a Christ-like figure, is very different.
What is striking is where some of this criticism is coming from - loyal, conservative Catholic allies.
They are unhappy, not just because of Trump's public friction with Pope Leo, but at a much deeper level over the Iran war.
The uproar over Trump's lengthy social media attack on the first American pope, as too liberal and too weak on crime, together with the AI image, have crystallised a shift in opinion among many Catholic conservatives since the war began six weeks ago.
I pray that all of this will clarify for people that we don't look to a national leader, we don't look to those who have the most money or the most weapons. We look to Christ, says Bishop Joseph Strickland.
These words come from a man who, only last year, participated in a prayer event to consecrate the president's Mar-a-Lago home.
He has been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump through thick and thin. Indeed, his overt political alignment and open confrontation with the late Pope Francis even played a part in his removal from office as Bishop of Tyler, Texas.
Yet, in the face of starkly competing White House and Vatican narratives regarding the war in Iran and the wider Middle East, Bishop Strickland has made a rare break from the administration.
I do not believe this conflict meets the criteria of a just war. I stand with the Holy Father and his call for peace. This is not about politics. It's about moral truth, he told the BBC, saying the scale of death and suffering faced by innocent civilians meant the war could never be viewed as just.
More than that, he has challenged the White House on its handling of the war and encouraged other Catholics to do the same.
When asked about Trump's attack on Pope Leo and the image some have referred to as AI Jesus, Bishop Strickland said he felt it was his duty to remind the US president of the Gospel of Matthew, pointing to a passage that teaches that supreme power resides with Christ and not with any man.
This shift in the way conservative Catholics regard the US president comes with political perils, given that he increased his support among that group in the 2024 election.
Racial background played a significant role, with 62% of White Catholics voting for Donald Trump and 37% for Kamala Harris, while 41% of Hispanic Catholics voted Trump and 58% Harris.
This still constituted a trend towards the Republican Party among Catholics as a whole, but with pronounced splits.
Historically, it appears that politics now holds substantial weight over faith within the American Catholic community.
