After the previous pontiff accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and celebrated his last Christmas ogling baby Jesus swaddled in a Palestinian keffiyeh, well, I thought maybe the new one might be wiser, kinder, and less divisive.
No such luck.
Two weeks ago, the now-reigning Pope Leo XIV called the ongoing war in Iran a “scandal on the whole human family,” suggesting that aerial bombings should be banned.
A week later, he wondered whether “those Christians who bear grave responsibility in armed conflicts have the humility and courage to make a serious examination of conscience and go to confession?” As US President Donald Trump and his minions are the only Christians directly involved in this particular armed conflict, the implication was clear.
And then, in a Palm Sunday homily at the Vatican’s Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Leo evoked the Savior himself. Jesus, he insisted, “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying…your hands are full of blood.”
Which prompted this meme on a satirical website called Babylon Bee: “Pope Leo Explains God Does Not Listen To People Who Wage War So Long As You Don’t Count Moses, David, Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Gideon, Samson, Or Anyone Else In The Bible.”
That one made me laugh. And also, I willingly confess even without a priest, inspired this column. Which posits the view that any religion professing to oppose all war is not dealing with the world as it is. And a pope professing pacifism is embracing an ideology rather than his religion.
“If Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping had set out to diminish the moral witness of the papacy,” columnist William McGurn declared in the Wall Street Journal, “they couldn’t have inflicted more damage than the Vatican itself caused in the past week. Rome’s blinkered position on war didn’t originate with Pope Leo XIV. But unless this pope steers the Catholic Church back to its own teachings on this fraught topic, it risks being dismissed even by sympathizers.”
I should pause here to offer yet another confession: I am neither Catholic nor a theologian. That said, however, I am indeed married to a Catholic, live in a predominantly Catholic country, and pay for my kids to attend Catholic schools. More importantly, I am a person living on this earth who must contend with its contradictions. One of them being that sometimes war is the only path to peace.
It is in that context that I view the current Iranian conflict. On one side sits a kabala of religious fanatics bent on retaining their power, oppressing their people, and ultimately oppressing—or destroying—much of the world. On the other: a coalition of leaders dedicated to the survival of their nations and cultures while convinced—though sometimes inconsistently—that an early defense may be the only one possible.
In the scope of history, it’s not a huge stretch to compare the Iranian ayatollahs of today to the German Nazis of the 1930s; just as the Nazis sought to ideologically remake Europe, so the ayatollahs seek to remake the Middle East. The big difference, of course, being that the availability of nuclear weapons—which Iran has repeatedly hinted it is willing to use—could quickly escalate a regional conflict into a global tragedy.
So here’s my question for Pope Leo; would he have opposed the waging of World War II? And if so, how can anyone knowing modern history see him as a man of God? “This may sound harsh,” McGurn concludes in his essay, “but it’s necessary to say. The Catholic Church and its last few popes have understood only the destructive force of war. They appear to have given little thought to the terrible consequences for innocent people when soft words are offered as a substitute for tough but necessary action.”
My biggest fear: that a timid world will force the premature cessation of that tough but necessary action before fully receiving its redemption.
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David Haldane is an award-winning American journalist and author living in Northern Mindanao. His latest book is Dark Skies: Tales of Turbulence in Paradise. This column appears weekly in The Manila Times.
