{"id":534730,"date":"2026-04-16T20:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/534730\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T20:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:35:09","slug":"pope-says-world-is-being-ravaged-by-a-handful-of-tyrants-amid-feud-with-trumps-white-house-pope-leo-xiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/534730\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope says \u2018world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants\u2019 amid feud with Trump\u2019s White House | Pope Leo XIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV<\/a> has said that the world is being \u201cravaged by a handful of tyrants\u201d who spend billions on war, in comments that will be seen as another sharp escalation in his almost week-long feud with the White House over the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n

The first American-born pontiff did not mention Donald Trump<\/a> by name, but used his speech in Cameroon on Thursday to denounce world leaders that invoke religion to justify violence against other nations.<\/p>\n

His comments came as US bishops offered their full-throated support<\/a> to the head of the Catholic church, who has been under fire from Trump for days after speaking out against the Iran war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWoe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,\u201d Leo told a gathering at Saint Joseph Cathedral in the western city of Bamenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters,\u201d said the pontiff, who is on an 11-day tour of Africa.<\/a><\/p>\n

The unusually forceful statement from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, meanwhile, came after JD Vance, Trump\u2019s vice-president and a converted Catholic, assailed Leo for speaking out against the war, in effect telling the pope to stay out of politics and \u201cstick to matters of morality<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Vance questioned Leo\u2019s call for peace by challenging his benchmark for a \u201cmorally justifiable\u201d war. \u201cWhen the pope says that God is never on the side of people who wield the sword, there is more than a 1,000-year tradition of just war theory,\u201d he told a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia.<\/p>\n

But the bishops said Vance had mis-stated Leo\u2019s position. \u201cFor over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war,\u201d said the statement<\/a> on Wednesday, attributed to James Massa, chair conference\u2019s committee on doctrine.<\/p>\n

\u201cA constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword \u2018in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed\u2019. That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said<\/a>: \u2018He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Pope Leo XIV<\/a> speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo told reporters earlier this week on a plane to Algeria at the start of his trip that he did not fear Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not see my role as that of a politician. I am not a politician and I do not want to enter a debate with him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI continue to speak strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, dialogue and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump posted an image<\/a> to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday depicting himself being embraced by Jesus with the US flag as a backdrop, days after a backlash from supporters \u2013 including many on the religious right \u2013 forced him to delete<\/a> an AI-generated image portraying the robed president as a Christ-like healer of the sick.<\/p>\n

In a separate development, the Miami Herald reported<\/a> on Wednesday that the Trump administration, in an apparent act of retaliation, was ending funding for a Catholic church-based charity in the city that shelters immigrant children.<\/p>\n

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami said the White House had pulled a longstanding $11m contract from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for a program that provides specialized services for unaccompanied and undocumented minors who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship \u2026 and [the services] will be forced to shut down within three months,\u201d Thomas Wenski, the archbishop of Miami, said in a statement to the newspaper.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The] services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country. Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the federal health and human services department, told the Herald that the average daily population of unaccompanied migrant children in the agency\u2019s care during Trump\u2019s second term of office was about 1,900 and \u201csignificantly lower\u201d than it was under the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cORR is closing and consolidating unused facilities as the Trump administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children,\u201d Hilliard said in a statement that did not specifically mention the program run by the archdiocese of Miami.<\/p>\n

Wenski told the Herald he accepted some initiatives would be scaled back as migration declined, but said it was \u201cbaffling that the government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence\u201d of the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV has said that the world is being \u201cravaged by a handful of tyrants\u201d who spend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-534730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}