{"id":387462,"date":"2026-04-11T23:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T23:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/387462\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T23:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T23:49:17","slug":"pope-says-enough-of-war-and-decries-delusion-of-omnipotence-at-peace-vigil-pope-leo-xiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/387462\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope says \u2018enough of war\u2019 and decries \u2018delusion of omnipotence\u2019 at peace vigil | Pope Leo XIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV<\/a> stepped into the international political arena at evening prayers in St Peter\u2019s Basilica in Vatican City on Saturday, saying prayer for peace is \u201ca bulwark against that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first US-born pope said: \u201cEven the holy Name of God, the God of life, is being dragged into discourses of death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing world leaders who decide to go to war, Leo said: \u201cTo them we cry out: stop! It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation \u2013 not at the table where rearmament is planned and deadly actions are decided.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

While the pope did not explicitly mention the US-Israeli war with Iran<\/a>, or name any single country or president, his words will be read as his strongest condemnation yet of a conflict the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth has cast as a sacred struggle. The pope\u2019s remarks came during face-to-face negotiations<\/a> between US and Iranian delegations in Pakistan to shore up a fragile truce and put a permanent end to hostilities.<\/p>\n

The US delegation in Islamabad was led by JD Vance, the vice-president, whose new book is about his conversion to Catholicism. The talks take place days after it was reported<\/a> that Vance\u2019s friend, Elbridge Colby, a senior Pentagon official who is also Catholic, had summoned the Vatican\u2019s ambassador to the US in January to rebuke him over comments by the pope that month. Leo\u2019s January declaration<\/a> that \u201ca diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force\u201d reportedly enraged Pentagon officials.<\/p>\n

Leo\u2019s tone and message on Saturday appeared aimed<\/a> at Trump administration<\/a> officials, who have boasted of US military superiority and justified<\/a> the war in religious terms.<\/p>\n

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has invoked<\/a> his Christian faith to cast the US as a Christian nation righteously seeking to vanquish its foes, describing the attack on Iran as a holy war carried out \u201cin the name of Jesus Christ\u201d and even compared<\/a> the rescue of a downed F-15 airman in terms that echoed the resurrection of Jesus.<\/p>\n

The pope said that those who pray \u201care aware of their own limitations. They do not kill or threaten with death. Instead, death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind and deaf idol, to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Letters from Leo newsletter reported<\/a>, the pope offered his homily at the tomb of St Peter at a prayer vigil announced during<\/a> the pope\u2019s Easter Urbi et Orbi message. He was joined by parishes on every continent, and thousands to St Peter\u2019s Basilica for an evening of rosary and meditation.<\/p>\n

The effort to contest any religious justification for war was made before emissaries from both the US and Iran: in the basilica pews were Laura Hochla, deputy chief of mission with the US embassy to the Holy See, and the archbishop of Tehran, Belgian cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu.<\/p>\n

At the start of the war in six weeks ago, Chicago-born Pope Leo seemed initially reluctant to publicly condemn the violence and limited his comments to muted appeals for peace and dialogue.<\/p>\n

But on Palm Sunday he stepped up criticism and later said<\/a> that Donald Trump\u2019s threat<\/a> on Easter Sunday to annihilate Iranian civilization was \u201ctruly unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Leo wrote<\/a> on his official X account: \u201cGod does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pope also wrote<\/a>: \u201cAbsurd and inhuman violence is spreading ferociously through the sacred places of the Christian East. Profaned by the blasphemy of war and the brutality of business, with no regard for people\u2019s lives, which are considered at most collateral damage of self-interest. But no gain can be worth the life of the weakest, children, or families. No cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Leo renewed his call<\/a> for all people of good will to pray for peace to \u201cbreak the demonic cycle of evil\u201d and build instead a world \u201cin which there is no sword, no drone, no vengeance, no trivialization of evil, no unjust profit, but only dignity, understanding and forgiveness\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV stepped into the international political arena at evening prayers in St Peter\u2019s Basilica in Vatican…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-387462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387462","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=387462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}