 |
| What Trump and Pope Leo have said about each other |
Pope Leo has criticised leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was "being ravaged by a handful of tyrants" in unusually forceful comments during a visit to Cameroon.
The pontiff blasted those he said had manipulated "the very name of God" for their own gain, while touring a region ravaged by a deadly insurgency.
The remarks come just days after a high-profile spat with US President Donald Trump, who posted a lengthy attack on the Pope, a vocal critic of the US-Israeli military operation in Iran.
The Pope had voiced his concern about Trump's threat that "a whole civilisation will die" if Iran did not agree to US demands to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.
Leo, who last year became the first US-born Pope, has previously also questioned the Trump administration's approach to immigration.
"Leo should get his act together as Pope," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at the time.
The Pope told reporters at the start of his Africa tour that he did not want to get into a debate with Trump but would continue to promote peace.
Speaking in Cameroon, the Pope criticised leaders who "turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found".
"The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild," he said on Thursday.
 |
| Reuters |
A "bloodstained" region of Cameroon that has been engulfed by insurgency for nearly a decade was also condemned by the Pope as "an endless cycle of destabilization and death." He told the people gathered at a cathedral in the northwestern city of Bamenda, the epicenter of the violence that has resulted in the deaths of at least 6,000 people and the displacement of many more, "Those who rob your land of its resources typically invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilization and death." The Pope stated, "Peace is not something we must invent: it is something we must embrace by accepting our neighbor as a brother and sister." Separatist insurgents in Cameroon's two Anglophone regions have been fighting the predominantly Francophone government since 2017.
Following Leo's address, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said that she stood with the Pope in his "courageous call for a kingdom of peace". The war in Iran has increasingly placed the Pope and the Trump administration at odds.
Soon after the first US and Israeli attacks on Iran, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recited a highly controversial prayer at a Pentagon worship service that talked of "overwhelming violence" and "justice executed swiftly and without remorse".
The Pope then stated that Jesus could not be used to justify war during a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, describing the conflict between Iran, Israel, and the United States as "atrocious." "This is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war," he told tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in Vatican City.
"He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them."
The pontiff also quoted the Bible passage Isaiah 1:15: "Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood."
Earlier this week, Trump launched a scathing attack on the Pope on social media, in which he described the leader of the Catholic Church as "WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy" while portraying himself as a Jesus-like figure.
He later doubled-down on his criticism and refused to apologise - but deleted the AI-generated image of himself.
Posts
0 Comments