He claims that the Catholic Church is the true church established by Christ, despite the existence of scandal and human flaws within it.

“I think uh I think Catholicism is true. I think that God exists. Uh that Christ is the second person of the blessed trinity, the long awaited Messiah. I think he established a church and I think he gave that church authority and that that church is the Catholic Church.”

He believes the Catholic Church is the one institution founded by Jesus as a single, visible church with authoritative apostolic succession to guide believers.

“I think the biggest thing that draws me to Catholicism is Jesus's promise that he would establish one church. Not two churches, not five churches, not 10 churches.”

The Eucharist is the literal body and blood of Christ and is essential for salvation.

“We consider the Eucharist truly one of those mysteries that we can't explain but truly becomes his body and blood and it's necessary for our salvation.”

A person cannot be considered a devout Catholic if they publicly reject fundamental moral teachings of the Catholic Church.

“If you publicly denounce fundamental tenets of the Catholic faith, then you are by definition not Catholic.”

The Church should not convince people that sin is acceptable, as it leads people away from the truth and scripture.

“do not in any way shape or form convince people that sin is goodness because you will have a big problem and guess who has a the guy upstairs he has a problem with that”

Recent media reports and criticisms suggesting the Pope does not condemn Islamic terrorism are part of a coordinated political operation aimed at driving a wedge between Catholics and President Trump.

“This is an OP. This is an anti-atholic and coincidentally anti-Trump op to try to split the Catholics from the president and the president from the Catholics. That's what this is. That's what's going on.”

He views the leadership of the Catholic Church as increasingly progressive on social issues despite remaining conservative on topics like abortion and gender identity.

“I do think that in the Francis era and especially since Francis appointed like I think 80% of the cardinals that voted. Um, those the leaders of the Catholic Church are now leaning into sort of the more progressive positions on issues that they've always had or at least the church has mostly always ”

He believes the Trump administration's use of religious imagery during the war in Iran is counterproductive and harmful to U.S. interests.

“when you're at war with a Muslim nation to constantly be using religious Christian religious imagery to do it, you are that that is so counterproductive because it feeds the suggestion that that that can be weaponized against the United States”

The new pope's Twitter feed demonstrates a history of political engagement and apparent frustration with the MAGA movement.

“it's extremely political. It was as though the only times he was tweeting or retweeting was to make political statements.”

Matthew Cox believes the Catholic Church is currently struggling with political skirmishes regarding LGBTQ+ rights, reflecting the broader American culture wars.

“I think that those General political skirmishes that we see reflected in the American culture wars generally are reflected in the Catholic church and particularly the American Catholic church and are almost indistinguishable”