Recommendations of the Editorial team
Pope Leo XIV has no intention of softening his criticism of Donald Trump’s war against Iran.
“God does not bless conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, never stands on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs,” Leo wrote on
Leo, a Chicago native and the first American pope in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history, has openly criticized the conflict in the Middle East since U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran began in February. His posts on Friday appear to be, at least in part, a response to the Trump administration’s continued invocation of God in Operation Epic Fury.
Hegseth and the holy war
Defense Minister Pete Hegseth has been particularly consistent in framing the conflict as a holy war that is being waged “in the name of Jesus Christ.”
At a press conference on Wednesday – Hegseth is a former Fox News host who sports not one but two crusade-themed tattoos – he said of the alleged truce: “All the credit goes to God. Tens of thousands of attacks under the protection of divine providence. A massive effort with miraculous preservation. God is good.”
The pope also wrote Friday: “Absurd and inhumane violence spreads with savage cruelty in the holy places of the Christian East. Desecrated by the blasphemy of war and the brutality of business, without any regard for human lives, which at best are seen as collateral damage to self-serving interests.”
“No gain can outweigh the lives of the most vulnerable, children or families. No cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood,” he added.
The Pentagon under pressure
Leo has become a prominent voice of opposition to his homeland’s Christian nationalist war policy. The Pentagon is said to be anything but enthusiastic about this.
On Monday, The Free Press reported that in January – as Leo’s indirect criticism of the Trump administration grew sharper and attracted greater attention – the Pentagon summoned former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who retired in March, to a meeting. There it was said that the cardinal was told that the US military had the “power to do whatever it wanted – and that the church had better take its side.”
Sources told The Free Press that Defense Department officials even brought up the Avignon papacy – the 67 years in the 14th century during which the papacy was effectively held hostage under French control in the city of Avignon, far from Rome. The Avignon papacy began with the kidnapping and death of Pope Boniface VIII after long political disputes with King Philip IV of France.
After Boniface’s death, Philip forced the election of a French pope acceptable to him and kept the papal court within his immediate sphere of influence. The papacy remained under French control for seven popes before Pope Gregory XI. brought it back to Rome. Since then, no Frenchman has been made pope.
A historically serious threat to representatives of the Vatican – especially after the historic election of an American pope. The Pentagon and White House have denied the report, and the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See said Cardinal Pierre also rejected the media’s portrayal of the January meeting.
Criticism since Easter
Leo’s posts on Friday follow an Easter text in which he wrote: “Death is always lurking. We see it in the violence, in the wounds of the world, in the cry of pain that rises from every corner – because of the attacks that crush the weakest, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys.”
A few days after Hegseth blasted journalists in March for not reporting the war positively enough, Leo wrote that it was “the duty of every journalist to check the news so as not to become the mouthpiece of power. They must show the suffering that war always brings to people – that means giving war a face and portraying it through the eyes of the victims.”
Tensions between the Vatican and the Trump administration have now reached such a level that, according to a report, Leo has canceled a visit to the United States planned for this summer – and may avoid travel to his native country as long as Trump remains in office.
