Pope Leo XIV, dubbed “the quiet American” for his careful diplomacy and cautious speech, made a definitive break with his unassuming image in the past week with a series of excoriating criticisms of military aggressors against the backdrop of the Iran war.
“God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs,” Leo wrote in one recent social media post.
“The commandment ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ is equally applicable to international relations,” he said later.
The first United States-born pope had taken a conciliatory approach in the year since his election, seeking to unite the church after a difficult period in which his predecessor, Pope Francis, had become a divisive figure in the highly polarised politics of the US.
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Yet Leo has now proved himself unafraid to take a stand when it comes to peace – an issue he indicated would define his papacy from his earliest days as pope – even at the risk of the ire of the Trump administration.
The statements were made as Leo undertook a visit to Africa, encouraging efforts to foster peace in countries such as Cameroon, which has been wracked by violence for nearly a decade.
There was deep symbolism in his visit to the Algerian city of Annaba, the former home of St Augustine, the patron of the religious order that Leo led before becoming pope and father of the “just war theory” about determining when conflict is morally justifiable.
Leo has at times made an explicit link to conflict in the Middle East, with one post condemning the “absurd and inhuman violence” in the “the sacred places of the Christian East, profaned by the blasphemy of war”.
His statements have been received in Washington as criticism of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
The response from the Trump administration has been the abrupt cancellation of a multimillion-dollar contract with a Catholic charity, and open criticism from US president Donald Trump and his deputy JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019 and has a memoir due out about it.
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“How do you say that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword?” Vance asked in an address to right-wing supporters hours after Leo’s visit to Annaba, citing the example of the liberation of Holocaust camps.
“I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” added Vance.
Vance’s remarks drew an unusual clarification from Bishop James Massa, the senior Catholic authority on doctrine in the United States, who clarified that Pope Leo was “not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ”.
“For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war,” Massa said in a statement published on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword in self-defence, once all peace efforts have failed.”
Meanwhile, Pope Leo is undeterred.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” he told a gathering at St Joseph Cathedral in Bamenda in Cameroon, condemning the lack of funds for healing, education and restoration while “billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation”.
“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
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