Pope Leo XIV’s defiant message to Trump administration as non secular confrontation escalates

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Pope Leo XIV’s defiant message to Trump administration as non secular confrontation escalates

3 min learnNew DelhiUp to date: Apr 17, 2026 10:10 AM IST

Amid a feud with US President Donald Trump’s administration over the conflict in West Asia, US-born Pope Leo XIV delivered his newest assertion on Thursday that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” in an obvious dig at Trump.

At first of his Africa tour, Pope Leo mentioned, criticising those that had manipulated “the very title of God” for their very own acquire.

Meantime, US Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth cited biblical scriptures to assault the media over their alleged destructive protection of the US-Israeli conflict in opposition to Iran. He in contrast reporters to Pharisees, the Jewish adversaries of Jesus Christ plotting “how ‌to destroy him.”

“The Pharisees scrutinized each good act with the intention to discover a violation. Solely searching for the destructive. The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated solely to impugn,” he mentioned, as quoted by information company Reuters.

The developments got here after the US Catholic bishops’ doctrine committee on Wednesday provided him help after US Vice President JD Vance, who transformed to Catholicism in 2019, prompt that the pontiff be extra “cautious.” The chairman, Bishop James Massa, mentioned the Pope will not be providing opinions on theology however “preaching the Gospel.”

These statements mark the most recent rounds within the confrontation between the Catholic Church and the MAGA foyer, who’ve repeatedly cited non secular scriptures to justify the navy marketing campaign.

This week, Trump criticized Pope Leo, accusing him of being “weak on crime” and “horrible for overseas coverage” after he referred to as for an finish to the conflict. After that, on Tuesday, the feud escalated when the US President uploaded an AI picture of himself as a Jesus-like determine. The photographs have been deleted after sparking outrage on-line.

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Talking on the President’s actions Vance mentioned, “After all, he took it down as a result of he acknowledged lots of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case.” In response, the Pope mentioned he doesn’t concern the Trump administration and added that the Vatican’s appeals for peace are rooted within the Gospel.

The Chicago-born clergyman, who was elevated to the papacy final yr, has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump and his insurance policies. Following experiences of immigration crackdowns, the pontiff mentioned that foreigners within the US are being handled in an “extraordinarily disrespectful approach”.

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