{"id":414232,"date":"2026-04-23T23:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414232\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:05:17","slug":"i-love-pope-leo-standing-up-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414232\/","title":{"rendered":"I love Pope Leo standing up to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Actor Ralph Fiennes has said \u201cI love\u201d that Pope Leo is standing up to US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing on Andrew Marr\u2019s show on LBC Radio, Fiennes spoke of the ongoing Iran conflict and what he described as \u201cthe obscene approach of Mr Trump\u2019s regime to waging war\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Fiennes starred in Oscar-winning film Conclave in 2024, playing the role of Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, who organises a conclave to elect the next pope.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ralph-fiennes-i-love-pope-leo-standing-up-to-trump.jpg\" alt=\"Equatorial Guinea Africa Pope\" data-title=\"Equatorial Guinea Africa Pope\" data-copyright-holder=\"AP\" data-copyright-notice=\"Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved\" data-credit=\"Misper Apawu\" data-usage-terms=\"This content is intended for editorial use only. For other uses, additional clearances may be required.\"\/>Pope Leo celebrates the Holy mass at the Malabo stadium, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (Misper Apawu\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>Asked by Marr what he thought of Leo in light of his role, Fiennes said: \u201cI think he\u2019s great.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love his standing up to Trump, or implicitly to Trump by what he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think war is an obscenity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a central \u2013 as I understand it \u2013 a central theme of Christ\u2019s teaching is war is wrong.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"428\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776985516_784_ralph-fiennes-i-love-pope-leo-standing-up-to-trump.jpg\" alt=\"Trump\" data-title=\"Trump\" data-copyright-holder=\"AP\" data-copyright-notice=\"Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.\" data-credit=\"Julia Demaree Nikhinson\" data-usage-terms=\"This content is intended for editorial use only. For other uses, additional clearances may be required.\"\/>The US president has said that Pope Leo owed his election to him (Julia Demaree Nikhinson\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou do not wage war, certainly not by choice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the \u2013 in my view \u2013 not that you\u2019re interested, but the obscene approach of Trump\u2019s regime to waging war in this way, whatever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI make, no apologies for the Iranian regime, but the point about the Pope is he spoke about an ethical principle, about violence, about non-violence\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leo has issued consistent calls for peace and dialogue, and has denounced the use of religious justification for war.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"960\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776985517_737_ralph-fiennes-i-love-pope-leo-standing-up-to-trump.jpg\" alt=\"Ralph Fiennes attending the BFI London Film Festival gala screening of Conclave\" data-title=\"Ralph Fiennes attending the BFI London Film Festival gala screening of Conclave\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Ian West\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>Ralph Fiennes attending the BFI London Film Festival gala screening of Conclave (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Mr Trump has accused Leo of being soft on crime and cosy with the left, and said that the first American pontiff owed his election to him.<\/p>\n<p>Discussing Leo, Fiennes continued: \u201cHe\u2019s not looking for a fight, he\u2019s looking to make a point of principle. And he\u2019s in obviously an extraordinary position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe can say it, and I thought he positioned it and said it with great courage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I\u2019m a fan of Pope Leo. I\u2019m a fan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fiennes was appearing on LBC on Thursday evening to talk about his role in the West End play Grace Pervades.<\/p>\n<p>He is due to reprise the role of Henry Irving at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from Friday, after it was previously performed\u00a0at the Theatre Royal Bath last summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor Ralph Fiennes has said \u201cI love\u201d that Pope Leo is standing up to US President Donald Trump.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-414232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}