\u201cToo many persons are suffering today, too many innocent people have been killed, and I imagine someone must arise and say that there’s a higher way,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tTrump says Leo will not be \u2018doing a excellent job\u2019\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Trump\u00a0delivered a unprecedented broadside against\u00a0Leo\u00a0on Sunday night, saying he didn\u2019t think the U.S.-born global leader of the Catholic Church is \u201cdoing a excellent job\u201d and that \u201che\u2019s a really liberal person,\u201d while also suggesting the pontiff should \u201cstop catering to the Radical Left.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Flying back to Washington from Florida, Trump used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticize Leo, then kept it up after deplaning, in comments on the tarmac to reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a fan of Pope Leo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments got here after Leo suggested over the weekend that a\u00a0\u201cdelusion of omnipotence\u201d\u00a0is fueling the\u00a0U.S.-Israel war in Iran. While it\u2019s common for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it\u2019s exceedingly rare for the pope to directly criticize a U.S. leader \u2014 and Trump\u2019s stinging response is equally unusual, if no more so.<\/p>\n
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\u201cPope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,\u201d the president wrote in his post, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t desire a Pope who thinks it\u2019s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Italian politicians across the spectrum showed their solidarity with Leo. Premier Giorgia Meloni sent a message of support for his peace mission while the leader of the primary opposition party, Elly Schlein, was more direct, calling Trump\u2019s attacks \u201cextremely serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump repeated that sentiment in comments to reporters, saying, \u201cWe don\u2019t like a pope who says it\u2019s OK to have a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, Trump posted an image suggesting he had saint-like powers akin to those of Jesus Christ. Wearing a biblical-style robe, Trump is seen laying hands on a bedridden man as light emanates from his fingers, while a soldier, a nurse, a praying woman and a bearded man in a baseball cap all look on admiringly. The sky above is stuffed with eagles, an American flag and vaporous images.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tLeo\u2019s opposition to war irked Trump\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n All of that got here after Leo presided over a night prayer service in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica on Saturday, the identical day the USA and Iran\u00a0began face-to-face negotiations\u00a0in Pakistan during a fragile ceasefire, with Vice President JD Vance leading the U.S. delegation. Vance is Catholic and\u00a0recently released a book\u00a0about his faith.<\/p>\n
During his evening prayer service, the pope didn\u2019t mention the USA or Trump by name, but his tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who’ve boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\tMore on World<\/button>More videos<\/button>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nLeo, who’s on an 11-day trip to Africa starting Monday \u2014 has previously said that God \u201cdoesn’t take heed to the prayers of those that wage war, but rejects them.\u201d He\u2019s also referenced an Old Testament passage from Isaiah, saying that \u201cregardless that you make many prayers, I is not going to listen \u2014 your hands are filled with blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Before the ceasefire, when Trump warned of\u00a0mass strikes against Iranian power plants and other infrastructure\u00a0and that \u201ca complete civilization will die tonight,\u201d\u00a0Leo described such sentiments\u00a0as \u201ctruly unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In his social media post on Sunday night, nonetheless, Trump went far beyond the war in Iran in criticizing Leo.<\/p>\n
The president wrote, \u201cI don\u2019t desire a Pope who thinks it\u2019s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the USA.\u201d That was a reference to the Trump administration having\u00a0ousted Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u00a0in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t desire a Pope who criticizes the President of the USA because I\u2019m doing exactly what I used to be elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do,\u201d Trump added, referencing his 2024 election victory.<\/p>\n
He also suggested within the post that Leo only got his position \u201cbecause he was an American, they usually thought that may be one of the best strategy to cope with President Donald J. Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf I wasn\u2019t within the White House, Leo wouldn\u2019t be within the Vatican,\u201d Trump wrote, adding, \u201cLeo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and deal with being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It\u2019s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it\u2019s hurting the Catholic Church!\u201d<\/p>\n
In his subsequent comments to reporters, Trump remained highly critical, saying of Leo, \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s doing a excellent job. He likes crime I suppose\u201d and adding, \u201cHe\u2019s a really liberal person.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tBishops say the pope will not be a politician\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a press release saying he was \u201cdisheartened\u201d by Trump\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cPope Leo will not be his rival; neither is the Pope a politician. He’s the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the reality of the Gospel and for the care of souls,\u201d Coakley said.<\/p>\n
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The Italian Bishops\u2019 Conference expressed regret over Trump\u2019s words, and underlined that the pope \u201cwill not be a political counterpart, however the successor of Peter, called to serve the Gospel, truth and peace.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Within the 2024 election, Trump won 55 per cent of Catholic voters, in response to AP VoteCast, an intensive survey of the electorate. But Trump\u2019s administration also has close ties\u00a0to conservative evangelical Protestant leaders and has\u00a0claimed heavenly endorsement\u00a0for the war on Iran.<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Americans to hope for victory \u201cwithin the name of Jesus Christ.\u201d And, when Trump was asked whether he thought God approved of the war, he said, \u201cI do, because God is sweet \u2014 because God is sweet and God desires to see people taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV pushed back Monday on President Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0broadside against him\u00a0over the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, telling reporters that the Vatican\u2019s appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted within the Gospel, and that he doesn\u2019t fear the Trump administration. \u201cTo place my message on the identical plane as what the president has attempted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":318102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[518,3697,15256,8012,1903,7839,1313,571,9599],"class_list":["post-318101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-fear","tag-feud","tag-iran","tag-leo","tag-national","tag-pope","tag-trump","tag-war","tag-xiv"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318104,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318101\/revisions\/318104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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