Pope Leo XIV warned that the world is being “ravaged by tyrants” after engaging this week in a feud with President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters,” Leo said in a speech in Cameroon on Thursday.
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The pope is currently on a four-country tour of Africa. On Thursday, he stopped in Cameroon, a country shaken by a violent civil war that has left 65,000 dead and over half a million displaced. Upon arriving in the country’s capital, Yaounde, Leo urged the government to break “the chains of corruption.”
In his Thursday comments, the pope also condemned 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.”
War Secretary Pete Hegseth previously called for Americans to pray for victory in Iran “in the name of Jesus Christ,” and frequently references his Christian faith, praying for God to strike down the nation’s enemies.
The pontiff has openly criticized the war in Iran, insinuating the United States is a perpetrator of the “demonic cycle of evil,” and adding that God does not bless any war or nations that “drop bombs.”
Leo also explicitly called out Trump’s threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” before the two-week ceasefire deal in Iran was brokered last week.
“Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran,” Leo said. “And this is truly unacceptable. There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more, it is a moral question concerning the good of the people as a whole, in its entirety.”
THE POPE, THE PRESIDENT, AND A PRESS THAT’S JUST MAKING IT UP
On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social, saying the pope was “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.”
That same day, Trump posted an AI-image of himself dressed in a robe and appearing to heal a hospitalized man. The post was deleted late Monday morning, with the president denying that the image depicted him as Jesus.
On Monday, the pope responded, saying he did not intend to attack anyone.
“The things I say are not meant as attacks on anyone,” adding that he has “no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel.”
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
