Madrid/The president of Iran, Masud Pezeshkian, condemned this Monday “the insult” of the American president, Donald Trump, to Pope Leo XIV, whom he said is “terrible in foreign policy.”
“His Holiness, Pope Louis XIV, condemned the insult directed at His Excellency in the name of the great nation of Iran,” Pezeshkian said in X.
“I declare that the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is unacceptable for any free person. I wish him glory in Allah,” he added.
Trump affirmed the day before that the American pope is “terrible in foreign policy” alluding to his criticism of Iran and Venezuela, and urged him to “stop pandering to the radical left.”
“Pope León is WEAK on crime and terrible in foreign policy,” the president wrote on his Truth Social network, in a long message in which he urges him to “focus on being a great pope, not a politician,” because “he is harming the Catholic Church.”
The pontiff responded to Trump that “the Gospel is clear” and that “the Church has the moral obligation to go against war”
The pontiff responded to Trump that “the Gospel is clear” and that “the Church has the moral obligation to go against war,” as he said during the flight to Algeria for his third international trip.
“The things I say do not have to be understood as an attack on anyone. The message of the Gospel is very clear: blessed are those who build peace,” said the American pontiff in statements to journalists traveling on the plane with him.
Leo XIV also assured that he is not “afraid” of the Trump administration or of “strongly declaring the message of the Gospel.”
Donald Trump’s statements against the Pope have provoked immediate reactions inside and outside the Church. The American bishop Robert Barron, close to conservative sectors, publicly apologized considering the attacks “inappropriate and disrespectful,” while other Catholic leaders in the United States closed ranks with the pontiff and defended his role as a moral authority focused on peace.
Vatican analysts such as Marco Politi have highlighted the unusual nature of the confrontation, as it is a direct clash between a president and the pope, something rare in contemporary politics.
I doubt the Pope will lose sleep over this, but the rest of us should. Because this is deranged, uncharitable and anti-Christian.
The Jesuit priest and American writer James Martin wrote on social media: “I doubt the Pope will lose sleep over this, before beginning his pilgrimage to Africa. But the rest of us should. Because this is deranged, uncharitable and anti-Christian. Is there no bottom to this moral misery?”
National political figures, such as former Republican congresswoman and former ally of the president, Marjorie Taylor Greene, have also condemned his words: “I completely denounce this and I am praying against it,” he published in X.
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, described the words of the US president as “unacceptable” this Monday: “I thought that the meaning of my statement this morning had been clear, but I reiterate it more clearly. I consider President Trump’s words addressed to the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni said in a statement.
The head of the Italian Government, a recognized ally of Trump in Europe, stressed that the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church and that it is “just and normal that he invokes peace and condemns any form of war.”
Donald Trump assured this Monday that he will not apologize to Pope Leo XIV
Donald Trump assured this Monday that he will not apologize to Pope Leo XIV: “He was very against what I am doing with respect to Iran, and a nuclear Iran cannot be allowed; Pope Leo
In this almost first year of pontificate, although always in a very cautious tone, Leo
Last Saturday, in the Vatican, he urged the world’s rulers to contain any “exhibition of force” and to “sit at tables of dialogue and mediation,” and although he did not mention specific cases, that message coincided with the negotiations between the United States and Iran in Pakistan.
