US President Donald Trump has criticised Pope Leo XIV as “terrible” in an unusual, direct attack on the Pontiff, who responded by vowing to continue denouncing war and suffering.
The president’s comments came after the Pope had spoken out, with growing force, against the US-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social late on Sunday.
Pope Leo, the first Pontiff from the US, responded Monday by saying that he would continue to denounce war, adding that the Christian message, rooted in the primacy of peace, was being “abused”.
“I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems,” he told Reuters aboard a papal flight to Algiers, where he is embarking on a 10-day tour to four African countries.
“Too many people are suffering in the world today,” Leo said. “Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”
Catholics on social media lambasted Trump for attacking the leader of the 1.4bn-member Catholic Church.
“There is no ambiguity about the situation now,” Massimo Faggioli, an expert on the papacy, told Reuters.
He compared the comments to efforts by the leaders of Germany and Italy during World War II to draw the late Pope Pius XII to support their causes.
“Not even Hitler or Mussolini attacked the pope so directly and publicly,” said Faggioli.
Archbishop Paul S Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that he was disheartened by Trump’s comments.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned Trump’s criticism of Leo’s comments as “unacceptable”, saying that “it is right and normal for (Leo) to call for peace and to condemn all forms of war”.
Leo, originally from Chicago, is known for choosing his words carefully.
He has emerged as an outspoken critic of the conflict with Iran in recent weeks and decried the “madness of war” in a peace appeal on Saturday.
Last year, he questioned whether the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies were in line with the church’s pro-life teachings, and called for a “deep reflection” about the way migrants are being treated in the United States.
Trump wrote in his post on Sunday that “Leo should get his act together as Pope”, later telling reporters he was “not a big fan” of the Pontiff.
Trump’s broadside against Leo also accused him of being “weak on nuclear weapons”, several days after the Pope said the US president’s threat to destroy Iranian civilisation was “truly unacceptable”.
In a speech on Palm Sunday last month in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, the Pope said God rejected the prayers of leaders who start wars and have their “hands full of blood”, calling the conflict in Iran “atrocious”.
Leo has also called on Trump to find an “off-ramp” to end the conflict and “decrease the amount of violence”.
In his post, Trump suggested that Leo was only elected to lead the Catholic Church last year “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J Trump”.
Leo said Monday that he was not a politician and did not want to be drawn into a debate with Trump.
Trump also had a rocky relationship with Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, who criticised Trump’s immigration policy proposals when he first ran for president and suggested Trump was “not a Christian”.
Trump had called Francis “disgraceful” in early 2016.
Related Story
Discover more from Truth Inspire Your Day
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
