Pope Leo XIV rebukes US-Israeli war on Iran: 'Enough of war'

Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born leader of the Roman Catholic Church, issued a sharp condemnation of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran on Saturday, declaring “Enough of war!” during a prayer service at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

He then implored his congregants to pray for an end to the war and to contact their elected officials, demanding that a way be found to promote peace through diplomacy.

In attendance at the prayer meeting were the archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, and several other senior Catholic officials. The U.S. Embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Laura Hochla, was also there, among diplomats from several other countries.

Pope Leo XIV has been reluctant, as many of his predecessors were, to make public comments on political and/or geostrategic affairs, limiting himself to calls for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve conflicts. Being an American by birth, there were expectations that he would be especially reluctant to criticize American military action, and when the war against Iran initially began on Feb. 28, his response was muted.

However, on Palm Sunday, he made some very sharp statements against the war in the midst of his sermon, and this past week, he declared President Trump’s rhetorical threat to “end” Iranian civilization to be “truly unacceptable.”

During Saturday’s evening prayer service, he said that praying was a way to “break the demonic cycle of evil” and to build an alternative reality without swords or drones of “unjust profit.”

He added that “It is here that we find a bulwark against that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive. The balance within the human family has been severely destabilized. Even the holy Name of God, the God of life, is being dragged into discourses of death.”

This last comment was apparently directed at Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, who has often prayed publicly in Jesus’ name for victory in this war.

Pope Leo has said in the recent past that God does not bless those who drop bombs and have blood on their hands.

Pope Leo and the Roman Catholic Church more broadly have also been outspoken in expressing concern over Israel’s war against the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia Hezbollah, which has led to widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and displaced more than a million residents in the country’s south.

The Maronite Catholic community, led by Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, has been particularly affected, with villages caught in the crossfire between the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah. Many Maronites are now reportedly considering emigration amid the ongoing conflict and Lebanon’s deepening economic crisis.