Anyone who thought Pope Leo XIV was going to be a milquetoast pontiff was sorely mistaken. His Urbi et Orbi Easter message was one of hope, but it was also an admonition to the United States, the country of his birth. “Let those who have weapons lay them down!” he preached. “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!”
Quoting a scripture from Isaiah to begin Holy Week, Leo said, “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”
Leo’s message followed a week in which he made his most direct and pointed criticism at the Trump administration and the war in Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a March 26 prayer service at the Pentagon during which he called for “overwhelming violence” against the United States’ enemies and from a Bible that had two crusader images that Hegseth also wears as tattoos: the Jerusalem Cross and the phrase Deus Volt, Latin for “God wills it.”
Quoting a scripture from Isaiah to begin Holy Week, Leo said, “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”
In his Urbi Et Orbi (to the city of Rome and to the world), a pope typically calls attention to pressing issues such as war. Pope Leo departed from tradition Sunday, in that he didn’t list various places in the world engulfed in war, but rather, used his speech to impart hope and make a direct plea to world leaders to put down arms and choose peace.
In another demonstration that Hegseth’s veneer of muscular Christianity is wearing thin, on Easter Sunday morning, CBS’s “Face the Nation” aired a prerecorded interview with Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA. “ I do think that it’s hard to cast this war, you know, as something that would be sponsored by the Lord,” he said. Broglio is the leader of over 200 priests who minister to Catholics in the U.S. military.
Broglio has unimpeachable conservative bonafides inside the church. Given his willingness to push back against the war the Trump administration launched, it’s reasonable to ask if we’re witnessing the start of a breakup between conservative Catholics and this administration.
Tension had already been building. The administration’s deportation plans are at direct odds with the church’s views on immigration, and we’ve seen pointed comments from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago. He issued a statement in October that read, in part: “We stand with the mother who crosses borders to feed her children. We stand with the father who labors in silence to build a better future. We stand with the young person who dreams of safety and a better future. Our parishes and schools will not turn away those who seek comfort, and we will not be silent when dignity is denied in the enforcement of the law. It is essential that we respect the dignity of every human being.”
Cardinal Cupich also condemned a disrespectful and childish White House video about the Iran war. “A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game,” Cupich wrote. “It’s sickening.”
We stand with the mother who crosses borders to feed her children. We stand with the father who labors in silence to build a better future. We stand with the young person who dreams of safety and a better future.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago
The Iran war, which started with the U.S. and Israel attacking that country, has also led to tensions between the Vatican and Israel. Citing security concerns, Israel stopped worship at the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday. It was the first Palm Sunday worship missed there in centuries, according to church officials, and a joint statement condemning the move was issued by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and The custody of the Holy Land. While the church of the Holy Sepulcher was open during Holy Week, according to AFP journalists the Easter Sunday mass at the church was sparsely attended because of limits on attendance.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump posted an Easter message on his social media platform that particularly jarring for its tone, profanity, and its sarcastic invocation of Allah. It clashed with the performances of piety some officials in his administration were trying to convey on Easter. Not only has his administration wrongly claimed God on its side during this war, the president couldn’t even do the bare minimum and post a positive Easter message.
All of this points to a serious PR issue for the Trump and his administration’s Christian posturing about the war.
Given criticism arising from archbishops, cardinals and the pope himself, the Iran war may prove to be defining for the administration’s relationship with the Catholic church. Indeed, we can expect the relationship between church leadership and the administration to become more adversarial the longer the war drags on.
Anthea Butler is a professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania.