{"id":547223,"date":"2026-04-23T22:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/547223\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:52:10","slug":"famed-conclave-actor-ralph-fiennes-praises-pope-leo-standing-up-to-trump-war-is-an-obscenity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/547223\/","title":{"rendered":"Famed \u2018Conclave\u2019 actor Ralph Fiennes praises Pope Leo standing up to Trump: \u2018war is an obscenity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Actor Ralph Fiennes<\/a> has expressed his admiration for Pope Leo<\/a>, stating he “love[s] that Pope Leo is standing up to US President Donald Trump<\/a>.” <\/p>\n

The acclaimed actor made the comments during an appearance on Andrew Marr\u2019s show on LBC Radio, where he discussed the ongoing Iran conflict<\/a> and criticised what he termed “the obscene approach of Mr Trump\u2019s regime to waging war”.<\/p>\n

Fiennes, who recently starred in the Oscar-winning 2024 film Conclave as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence \u2013 a character tasked with organising the election of the next pope \u2013 was asked by Marr for his thoughts on Leo in light of his role. <\/p>\n

\"\"(AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

“I think he\u2019s great,” Fiennes responded. “I love his standing up to Trump, or implicitly to Trump by what he said.”<\/p>\n

The actor elaborated on his anti-war stance<\/a>, asserting: “I think war is an obscenity. I think a central \u2013 as I understand it \u2013 a central theme of Christ\u2019s teaching is war is wrong. You do not wage war, certainly not by choice.” He continued, “And 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

\"RalphRalph Fiennes attending the BFI London Film Festival gala screening of Conclave (Ian West\/PA) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

Fiennes clarified his position, adding, “I 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”<\/p>\n

Pope Leo has consistently advocated for peace and dialogue, and has publicly condemned the use of religious justifications for conflict. In contrast, Mr Trump has previously accused Leo of being lenient on crime and too aligned with the left, even suggesting that the first American pontiff owed his election to him.<\/p>\n

Fiennes further praised Leo\u2019s approach: “He\u2019s not looking for a fight, he\u2019s looking to make a point of principle. And he\u2019s in obviously an extraordinary position. He can say it, and I thought he positioned it and said it with great courage. And I\u2019m a fan of Pope Leo. I\u2019m a fan.”<\/p>\n

Fiennes\u2019 appearance on LBC on Thursday evening was primarily to promote his role in the West End play Grace Pervades. He is scheduled to reprise his portrayal of Henry Irving at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from Friday, following its earlier run at the Theatre Royal Bath last summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,230,96,11237,56,54,55,188360],"class_list":{"0":"post-547223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-diplomacy","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-horizontal","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-wld"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547223","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=547223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}