Pope Leo XIV has been more forthright and relentless in his criticism of the Iran war than any other leader. And he’s becoming more outspoken.
The pope vs the president
Pope Leo XIV used his Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi address yesterday to call on those who have weapons to lay them down and those with the power to unleash war to choose peace. Donald Trump marked the holiest day in the Christian calendar by posting a message stuffed with expletives threatening to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” he wrote on his Truth Social account yesterday morning.
A day earlier, Trump invoked the Almighty in another social media post outlining the same threat to Iran if it does not agree to his terms by tomorrow morning.
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“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” he wrote.
“Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!"
Ten days ago, defence secretary Pete Hegseth asked Pentagon officials to pray for overwhelming violence for those who deserved no mercy. He used a prayer he said a military chaplain gave American troops during the operation to abduct Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last January.
“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” he said.
“Let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse, that evil may be driven back, and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them.”
Hegseth belongs to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a conservative network that promotes Christian Nationalism, and he has brought his faith into his running of the Pentagon. He hosts monthly prayer meetings and has sought to reform the military chaplain corps, which provides spiritual support to service personnel of all faiths and none, to make it more overtly religious.
Pope Leo appeared to rebuke Hegseth on Palm Sunday when he described the US and Israeli campaign against Iran as atrocious and said that Jesus could not be used to justify war.
“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them,” he said, before quoting from the prophet Isaiah.
“‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’”
Leo has been more forceful, consistent and relentless than any other world leader in his criticism of the war against Iran. He has called for a permanent ban on aerial bombing, and last month pleaded with Trump to find an off-ramp to end the war before Easter.
The pope did not mention Iran specifically in his address yesterday and he has in the past also called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. But he said yesterday that peace should not be imposed by force but through dialogue, “not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them”.
This message resonates throughout the Global South, and it chimes with the call from China and Pakistan last week for an immediate ceasefire in Iran and a peace process based on respect for sovereignty, international law and the primacy of the United Nations.
In a sermon on Holy Thursday, the pope went further, linking the colonial distortion of the Christian mission to today’s political reality and characterising Christ’s sacrifice as a rejection of imperialism.
“The cross is part of the mission: the sending becomes more bitter and frightening, but also more freeing and transformative. The imperialist occupation of the world is thus disrupted from within; the violence that until now has been the law is unmasked,” he said.
Later this month, Leo will make his first trip to Africa as pope, visiting Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. The Chicago-born pope has declined an invitation from vice-president JD Vance to visit the United States for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4th.
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