ROME\u00a0\u2014\u00a0In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the \u201cdelusion of omnipotence\u201d that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.<\/p>\n
Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.<\/p>\n
History\u2019s first U.S.-born pope didn\u2019t mention the United States or President Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo\u2019s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough of the idolatry of self and money!\u201d Leo said. \u201cEnough of the display of power! Enough of war!\u201d<\/p>\n
In the basilica pews was the archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu. The U.S. was represented in the diplomatic corps by its deputy chief of mission, Laura Hochla, the U.S. Embassy said.<\/p>\n
In the first weeks of the war, the Chicago-born Leo was initially reluctant to publicly condemn the violence and limited his comments to muted appeals for peace and dialogue. But Leo stepped up his criticism starting on Palm Sunday. And this week, he said Trump\u2019s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization was \u201ctruly unacceptable\u201d and called for dialogue to prevail.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Leo called for all people of good will to pray for peace and demand an end to war from their political leaders. The evening vigil in Rome, which featured Scripture readings and meditative recitation of the Rosary prayers, was taking place as simultaneous local prayer services were being held in the U.S. and beyond.<\/p>\n
Praying for peace, Leo said, was a way to \u201cbreak the demonic cycle of evil\u201d to build instead the Kingdom of God where there are no swords, drones or \u201cunjust profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is here that we find a bulwark against that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive,\u201d he said. \u201cEven the holy Name of God, the God of life, is being dragged into discourses of death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaders have used religion to justify their actions in the war. U.S. officials and especially Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have invoked their Christian faith to cast the U.S. as a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes.<\/p>\n
Leo has said God doesn\u2019t bless any war, and certainly not those who drop bombs.<\/p>\n
Leo presided over the service sitting off to the side of the altar on a white throne, wearing his formal red cape and liturgical stole and praying with a Rosary in his hands. Many of the priests and nuns in the pews fingered Rosary beads as the \u201cOur Father\u201d and \u201cHail Mary\u201d prayers were recited.<\/p>\n
The Vatican is particularly concerned about the spillover of Israel\u2019s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, given the plight of Christian communities in the south.<\/p>\n
Winfield writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME\u00a0\u2014\u00a0In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the \u201cdelusion of omnipotence\u201d that is fueling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[184523,184520,111948,42,87,19747,43,184521,17428,184522,14655,34233,1009,40,38,41,39,4374,184519,1032,2201],"class_list":{"0":"post-387143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-basilica","9":"tag-delusion","10":"tag-god","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-leo","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-omnipotence","16":"tag-peace","17":"tag-political-leader","18":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","19":"tag-prayer","20":"tag-president-trump","21":"tag-top-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topnews","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-u-s","26":"tag-u-s-official","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}