Pope Leo has shamed President Donald Trump for threatening that an “entire civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not meet his demands regarding the Strait of Hormuz.
Leo reminded Trump, who grew up in a Reformed Church and has said God is on America’s side in its strikes on Iran, that there is nothing Christian about massacring an entire country’s people, let alone one that 93 million call home.
“Today, as we all know, there was this threat against all the people of Iran,” Leo said, referencing an 8 a.m. Truth Social post by Trump. “This is truly unacceptable.”
Speaking to reporters, the Pope condemned the war as “unjust.” The Pope said that he is “asking all people of goodwill to search always for peace and not violence, to reject war, especially a war that many people have said is an unjust war, which is continuing to escalate. Which is not resolving anything; in fact, we have a worldwide economic crisis, energy crisis, situation in the Middle East of great instability, which is only provoking more hatred throughout the world. So come back to the table, let’s talk, let’s look for solutions in a peaceful way.”
Agence France-Presse reported that Leo said Trump’s threat, if carried out, may breach international law.
“Let’s remember especially the innocent, the children, the elderly, the sick, so many people who have already become or will become victims of this continued warfare. To remind all that attacks on civilian infrastructure is against international law, but that it is also a sign of the hatred, the division, the destruction that human being is capable of, and we all want to work for peace,” the Pope added.
“People want peace. I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen to ask them tell them to work for peace and to reject war always.”
The Chicago-born pontiff, who has also clashed with Trump over his deadly migrant crackdown, is not the only prominent Catholic calling out the president.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City released a statement condemning Trump’s threat, which the president insists he will deliver on if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz back to commercial traffic.
“The threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified,” said Coakley. “There are other ways to resolve conflict between peoples.”
The Catholic Church has been opposed to most wars in its history, as Jesus taught his followers to be non-violent. However, the church has made exceptions to support conflicts that it views as a “just war.”
The just war theory was developed by Christian thinkers like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, balancing the presumption against violence with necessities such as self-defense against an unjust invasion.
Leo has made clear he does not view war with Iran as just. Neither does Coakley.
Coakley, 70, said Tuesday, “I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost.”
Trump has mused that he is unlikely to get into heaven, saying last summer he is at the “bottom of the totem pole” regarding his odds of making it to the promised land.
Perhaps that is why Trump—even at 79 and in clearly declining health—saw no issue posting a truly deranged threat to Iran on Tuesday morning that read, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
In response, several Democratic lawmakers have called on the 25th Amendment to be invoked and for Trump to be removed from power.
Joining the likes of progressive Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib have been far-right conspiracists Alex Jones and Candace Owens, as well as the former MAGA darling Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“Not a single bomb has dropped on America,” Greene wrote on Tuesday. “We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.”
Jones said Trump’s threat would be a “war crime” if carried out.
“The definition of genocide is destroying an entire civilization/people!” Jones posted. “Trump literally sounds like an unhinged super villain from a Marvel comic movie.”
Reached for comment, White House Spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Daily Beast that “greater destruction can be avoided if the [Iranian] regime understands the seriousness of this moment and makes a deal with the United States.”
She added, “The Iranian regime has committed egregious human rights abuses against its own citizens for 47 years, just murdered tens of thousands of protestors in January, and has indiscriminately targeted civilians across the region in order to cause as much death as possible throughout this conflict. As President Trump has said, Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, and the Iranian people welcome the sound of bombs because it means their oppressors are losing.”
