Has the pope ever read the Bible?

You have to hand it to the Babylon Bee who had a perfect comeback for Pope Leo XIV, who, in his Palm Sunday address, at St. Peter’s Square, said, God rejects the prayers of those who wage war.”

The mocking meme read, “Pope Leo explains God does not listen to people who wage war, so long as you don’t count Moses, David, Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Gideon, Samson or anyone else in the Bible.”

Of course, all of those characters, listed in the meme, were men who followed the directions of God, to go to war and kill the enemy. So, it is truly puzzling how the head of the Roman Catholic Church, ordained in 1977 and supposedly an expert on matters of religion, can justify his belief that anyone involved in war has “hands full of blood.”  

From the pontiff’s point of view, a war intended to put an end to a theocratic extremist Muslim regime, about to finally realize its aspiration of obtaining nuclear weapons,” is “atrocious.” 

One can only wonder what adjective he’d come up with to describe a world held hostage by a lunatic Ayatollah, dedicated to conquering every nation on the face of the earth, to make each person subservient to Islam and forced to live under its rule? “Atrocious” would not adequately cover such an existence, because living like that describes “hell.”

This forced error, on the part of Pope Leo XIV, has most of us scratching our heads, wondering what Bible he is reading, because the accounts found within its pages are filled with wars, specifically ordained by God. Coupled by His promises of victory, we are told not to fear, knowing that He would be battling alongside of us, guaranteeing the victory.

What may be apparent is that the pope does not believe that the Jews of today still live under the promises made to them, as a nation, thousands of years ago. Perhaps, Pope Leo XIV is of the opinion that God’s hand of protection came to an end at the close of a specific era, no longer applicable or relevant in the year 2026.  

But if he does believe that, what version of the scriptures is he reading? Because even in the plethora of translations that exist today, there is no evidence for an expiration date on these verses:

“If the fixed order of the heavens departs from before Me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Jer. 31:36

“For the Lord will not forsake his people; He will never abandon His heritage.” Psalm 84:14 

“For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken by his God and the Lord of hosts.” Jer. 51:5

“I will establish the throne of David’s kingdom forever.  I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him.  Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Sam. 7:13-16

The above are only a small sampling of dozens of scriptures that remain unambiguous about God’s irrevocable plan and calling for His people – Israel! Does the pope believe otherwise? 

Would he consider the Jewish state, and other countries who rightly perceive the greatest threat of our time, to be more righteous and godlier were they to ignore the Iranian menace who truly has the blood of many thousands on their hands? How would such a capitulation end? Only by the forcible takeover of every human being, denying them the freedom to worship as they choose.

The pope’s extremely distorted view of world events not only calls into question the divine words recorded by the prophets of old, but also challenges his ability to recognize true evil and the legitimacy of fighting it when that threat is encroaching upon our freedoms.

One can only wonder if the Vatican believes that they would have a special immunity to the Islamic domination which fully intends to bring all under its authority and control?  

If history is any kind of indicator, we see that Muslim forces battled against the Catholic Church, specifically against Pope Urban II during the period of 1095-1291 in an attempt to control Jerusalem.  It wasn’t the only time that happened. The Reconquista of 711-1492 represented 700 years of wars by Catholic kingdoms in Spain and Portugal who fought the Muslim rule.  Similarly in the year 846, Arab raiders attacked St. Peter’s Basilica, in a full-on assault of the Roman Catholic church.

The Ottoman expansion and many other battles, throughout history, are filled with enough evidence that Islam and Catholicism have not been compatible throughout the ages nor will they ever be.

Nonetheless, today’s pope is fixated on excoriating the nation of Israel and any who would align with her, in this fight against all of humanity, as those who are so profoundly evil that even their prayers before God will surely go unheard.  Will he still utter those words as he, too, is carried off into captivity, stripped of his God-given right to practice another faith?

When a man who claims to be God’s representative on earth, and a true example of righteous living, is unable to call out wickedness and lead the world into a passionate cry to the heavens to save us from a demonic ideology which is anathema to a loving and merciful God, then the time has come to call out this pope as one who is greatly lacking in moral direction and clarity.

It doesn’t take a religious scholar to figure out that a nuclear Iran is a deadly force which will not hesitate to destroy those who get in their way.  What it does take is the courage and inner conviction of an individual who cares less about trying to please unprincipled and misguided people who would never find a justification for war.  

Such people would hasten their own end by naively believing they will go untouched.  But for the rest of us who see the grave danger before us, this is no time to condemn those courageous enough to do the right thing.

Pope Leo XIV needs to go back to “Bible 101” in order to get re-schooled on just what that is!