After the war in Iran started on February 28, Pope Leo XIV issued “muted appeals for peace and dialogue” for several weeks. However, his tone changed when he delivered a stern homily on March 29, Palm Sunday. He said, “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”
In response, President Donald Trump said that the Pope was “WEAK on Crime, and terrible on foreign policy.” He also commented, “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE to do.”
Pope Leo replied to those comments by telling reporters, “The things that I say are certainly not meant as attacks on anyone, and the message of the Gospel is very clear: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do.”
In the past few weeks, much of the Pope’s ire has been directed at President Trump. When the President posted on social media “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if the Iranians did not agree to open the Strait of Hormuz, the Pope responded that it was a “truly unacceptable” statement.
Unfortunately, Pope Leo has not been as forceful in his denunciations of the radical Islamist regime in Iran despite their financial support of terrorist organizations that kill innocent people worldwide. This Islamist regime also brutally suppresses dissent in its own country. In January, Iranian leaders authorized the murder of thousands of freedom-seeking protesters.
As President Trump asked, “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000…completely unarmed protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”
Not only had the butchers in Iran been overlooked by Pope Leo, but he also was low-key in his comments about the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria. Since 2009, between 50,000 and 100,000 Christians have been murdered in Nigeria, including 7,000 in the past year, or an average of 35 per day. In addition, an astonishing 19,000 Christian churches have been destroyed.
According to U.S. Republican Rep. Riley Moore (WV-2), “Data from Open Doors indicate that more Christians are killed every year in Nigeria than the rest of the world combined.”
In response to this barbaric and religiously motivated carnage directed at Christians, Pope Leo claimed that “there is certainly a danger for Christians, but for all people. Christians and Muslims have been slaughtered” in Nigeria.
These comments were echoed by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who reportedly said Nigeria does not have “a religious conflict, but rather a social conflict, for example, between herders and farmers.”
Really, Cardinal Parolin, a “social conflict” is leading to the destruction of thousands of Christian churches? He continued, “Let’s keep in mind that many Muslims who come to Nigeria are victims of this intolerance.”
According to Nina Shea, a member of the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, Parolin was parroting “the Nigerian government’s talking points that obfuscate and downplay the persecution of the Catholic faithful and other Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.”
Pope Leo and his Secretary of State should heed the religious freedom report produced by Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic pastoral aid organization. It found that “Christians (in Nigeria) have been the target of extrajudicial killings and abductions by insurgent groups and criminal gangs,” and “Christians suffer the brunt of extremist violence.”
While the Vatican tried to “downplay” the attacks against Christians in Nigeria, President Trump acted. He designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” due to the religious persecution targeted against Christians. Last Christmas Day, he authorized air strikes of Tomahawk missiles, which destroyed Islamic terrorist strongholds in the northwest section of the country.
Sadly, Pope Leo did not use his moral authority to condemn the vicious attacks against Christians in Nigeria or denounce Iran for killing their own citizens. But he did use his position to criticize President Trump.
Despite the admonishment, President Trump expressed his appreciation for the Pope’s mission. He said, “I want him to preach the Gospel. I’m all about the Gospel, but I also know that you cannot let a certain country, which is a very mean-spirited country, have a nuclear weapon. If they did, they would use it, and I think they’d use it quickly, and they would kill many millions of people.”
Fortunately, after weeks of debating the war in Iran, the Pope decided to change his approach to dealing with President Trump. On Saturday, as he was traveling to Angola, as part of his 10-day trip to Africa, the Pope addressed reporters about President Trump. He said it was “not in my interest at all” to debate the President. He said some of his comments about peace were prepared weeks in advance, “well before the president ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting.”
These comments were a welcome redirection from the ongoing verbal battle with President Trump. Instead, what is in the Pope’s “interest” is to focus on his primary mission of saving souls, preaching the Gospel, spreading the good works of the Catholic Church, and dealing forthrightly with the sexual abuse scandal involving children and vulnerable adults and the extensive coverup which lasted for decades.
Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic, said that he was “grateful” for the Pope’s most recent comments. He recognized the Pope’s mission of preaching the Gospel and said, “He will be in our prayers, and I hope that we’ll be in his.” Amen.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from 1-2 p.m. CT nationally on Real America's Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-9 a.m. & 6-7 p.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is the President and General Manager of WGSO Radio, a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance, and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and at Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com.