AP
Rome
In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the US-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.
History’s first US-born pope didn’t mention the United States or President Donald Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo’s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and US officials, who have boasted of US military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” Leo demanded. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!” Pope Leo said they were signs of hope “in a world marked by senseless and inhuman violence,” especially in the lands of early Christianity that have been “desecrated by the blasphemy of war and the brutality of business, with no regard for people’s lives.”
