Flying to Algeria at the start of his landmark Africa tour on Monday, Pope Leo had a choice. He could ignore Donald Trump’s extraordinary overnight social media tirade against him, or he could tackle it head-on.
In the end, he chose the second option, taking the highly unusual step of calling out the Trump administration. Speaking to reporters on board the papal plane, the pope said he did not fear the administration and would continue to speak strongly against war.
“I do not think the message of the Gospel should be abused, as some are doing,” he said, adding, “too many innocent lives have been lost… I believe someone must stand up and say there is a better way.”
Leo’s comments have defined him as the most visible international counterweight to Trump and set up an unprecedented clash between the first American pope and a US president who has launched repeated broadsides against him.
Yet the Chicago-born pontiff, known for his gentle, low-key style, did not pick this fight. Having spent much of his adult life in the Order of St Augustine, whose friars and sisters take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with a focus on unity and community, his priorities are unity and building bridges.
Rather than coming into his position with a flurry of executive orders or news-making initiatives, the pope has used much of his first year in office listening and making gradual changes. He has also emphasized the importance of multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and respect for international law, at a time when the US president has suggested he is not bound by those norms.
Although he’s a more reserved personality than his predecessor, Pope Francis, the US military operation in Iran has brought out Leo’s inner steel and a willingness to speak out in forthright terms. He decided to name Trump personally – something popes rarely do. While he has not named other members of the Trump administration, his remarks that “God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war” appeared to allude to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s eagerness to frame the conflict in the Middle East in religious terms.
Popes calling for peace and opposing war is not new. Pope John Paul II strongly opposed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. With an American pope, however, things are different. Leo XIV speaks English as his native tongue, something that has not happened since the 12th century, and his words cut through to a US audience, the White House, and beyond. Leo is also known in the Vatican for his “poker face” – he has a certain inscrutability that makes him hard to read, and his careful, deliberate style arguably gives his words greater weight.
While in Africa, Leo has continued to speak out, saying his time on the continent offers a message of peace the world needs to hear. During a peace meeting in Bamenda, Cameroon, Leo delivered a speech that had global ramifications.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters,” he said.
Read also: Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqir Qalibaf pays tribute to Pope Leo
