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On Wednesday, WaL explored whether Pope Leo XIV could, more than any other pope before him, have a unique voice in helping to sway the political opinions of Americans regarding their government’s relentless engagement in wars around the world.
Over the weekend, the new pope who was born in southern Chicago, celebrated his inaugural Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City with a call “not to forget” those suffering in the wars of Gaza, Ukraine, and Myanmar.
“In the joy of faith and communion, we cannot forget our brothers and sisters who suffer because of war. In Gaza, the surviving children, families, and the elderly are reduced to starvation,” Leo said at the end of Mass before reciting the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) prayer. “In Myanmar, new hostilities have cut short innocent young lives. Finally, war-torn Ukraine awaits negotiations for a just and lasting peace”.
A public address from a pope opposing war is nothing new, it’s only that this pope comes from the country that’s provided the vast majority of the munitions and bombs needed to prosecute two of those three conflicts.
In Rome on Wednesday for a jubilee and pilgrimage, the Holy Father met with Eastern Catholics, many of whom come from war-torn areas of the former Soviet Union including Ukraine and the Caucasus, but also parts of the Middle East.
“The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!” the pope said during an audience with the Easterners. “Who, better than you, can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence?” he asked a crowd of thousands, with visitors from the Holy Land, Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, Tigray, and the Caucasus.
The pope also specifically said that the Vatican could be used as a forum for negotiating ceasefire agreements.
“The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve—the dignity of peace,” he said.
The Pope of Peace
There has always been a pope present for the wars of the modern era, and opposing war is an easy statement for the Vicar of the Prince of Peace. It must be said though that so many of those Eastern Catholics reside in countries the United States was directly at war with, or was directly supporting a belligerent in such a war, and even directly opposing, in the case of Syria and Gaza, any attempt by any other international entity to assist the civilian population.
Yet still further, it cannot be denied that the Holy Father’s highlighting of the suffering of Catholics in these countries in part highlights the fact that America’s foreign policy decisions don’t merely affect Muslims, terrorists, tyrants, or communists, but rather Christians as well.
A day before this conference, the official X account of the pope wrote “War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must fall silent, for they never solve problems but only intensify them”.
These are some of Leo XIV’s first acts since becoming the leader of one of the world’s largest global faiths on May 8th. In his first public address following that election he specifically called for the fighting in Gaza to “cease immediately,” adding “let humanitarian aid be provided to the exhausted civilian population, and may all hostages be released”.
On Monday, May 19th, Leo met with Vice President J.D. Vance and Sect. of State Marco Rubio in a one-on-two meeting with the pomp typically reserved for heads of state. Meeting details were scant, but the Catholic News Service said that “an exchange of views” was had on disagreements between the Vatican and the US administration on “some current international issues”.
According to a post on X from Vance’s office, the leaders discussed “updates on the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and lasting peace”.
As yet there has been absolutely no line over which Israel and her military have crossed that has triggered any relational damage or disengagement with the United States. International law scholars stand in near-unanimous agreement that the onslaught in Gaza constitutes the crime of genocide, and yet the United States has never interrupted arms transfers or failed to act as Israel’s guarantor, arguing on the state’s behalf at the International Court of Justice, and helping to intercept missiles and drones from Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen from striking Israeli positions.
Only in the last month have any signs of division emerged, with President Trump agreeing to a ceasefire with the Houthis that doesn’t involve Israel, and reports of advanced negotiations with Iran over a deal to limit its nuclear enrichment rather than its complete cessation—an Israeli demand for over 25 years.
Though a bipartisan voting block, American Catholics, if they be the kind who follow the pope’s activities, will be entirely vulnerable to seeing that opposing American wars is possible, and that the consequences of those wars often fall on members of their very own church. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Pope Leo XIV’s first popemobile ride during his inauguration. PC US Dept. of State, Public Domain
