Trump slams Pope Leo over Iran war
WASHINGTON—US President Donald Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV on social media on Sunday, saying the first American pope should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”
It was an extraordinary broadside against the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, exacerbating a feud that began over the war in Iran.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote on social media.
Soon afterward, he spoke to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland where he landed on Air Force One.
“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” said Trump, adding that the Pontiff was “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”
“I don’t think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump said.
‘Beloved Lebanese people’
On Saturday, the 70-year-old Pontiff publicly implored leaders to end the violence, telling worshippers at St. Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
Leo also denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that he said is fueling the US-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
On Sunday, addressing the crowd at St. Peter’s Square following his Regina Coeli prayer, Leo said he expressed his closeness to the people of Lebanon, the country north of Israel, saying there was a “moral obligation” to protect them while calling on warring parties to seek peace.
“I am closer than ever, in these days of sorrow, fear, and unconquerable hope in God, to the beloved Lebanese people,” the Pope said. “The principle of humanity, inscribed in the conscience of every person and recognized in international law, entails the moral obligation to protect the civilian population from the atrocious effects of war.”
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East conflict last month as Israel pursued the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Lebanese authorities have so far reported more than 2,000 people killed in Israeli strikes.
The country where about a third of the population belong to various Christian denominations is currently headed by Joseph Aoun, a Maronite Christian.
On Monday, Leo is scheduled to visit Algeria for an 11-day tour in Africa where he will bring a message of bridge-building with the Islamic world.
Alleged Pentagon lecture
The Vatican had earlier denied reports that a top Pentagon official gave the Church’s envoy to the United States a “bitter lecture” over Leo’s criticism of the Iran war.
The story in the Free Press—which the Pentagon had already dismissed as “distorted”—reported that Cardinal Christophe Pierre was summoned in January to the Pentagon, where he was given a dressing-down by US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby.
Colby reportedly told the cardinal that the United States “has the military power to do whatever it wants—and that the Church had better take its side.”
But Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said on Monday “the account presented by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way.”
While both parties insist the meeting was cordial, the Holy See and the White House had already been at odds over the Trump administration’s hardline mass deportation campaign—which the Pontiff called “inhuman”—and the use of military force in Venezuela and now the Middle East.
When Trump made genocidal threats against Iran last week—saying “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again”—Leo criticized the “truly unacceptable” statement and urged parties to “come back to the table” for negotiations.
The Pontiff hailed the news of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a “sign of real hope” and led an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan.
Leo didn’t mention the United States or Trump in his prayer, but his tone and message appeared directed at Trump and US officials, who had boasted of US military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.
The peace talks held in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad ended abruptly on Saturday.
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