Pope Leo praises Iran war ceasefire after criticizing President Trump’s threats
Pope Leo praised the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, hours after calling President Trump’s threats against the Iranian people “unacceptable.”
- A recent meeting between Pope Leo XIV and Democratic strategist David Axelrod has sparked political speculation.
- Although an American-born pope is technically eligible to run for president of the United States, church law prohibits clergy from holding public office.
- The Pope recently criticized President Donald Trump’s threats against Iran, calling them “truly unacceptable.”
- Former President Barack Obama has expressed his desire to meet with the new pope, who is also from Chicago.
The Chicago leader’s private meeting with Democratic strategist David Axelrod in the spring before that year’s midterm elections is usually seen as a prelude to a major announcement.
On April 9, it was reported that Pope Leo XIV met with former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, sparking all kinds of speculation. Was the Pope planning to meet formally with the 44th president? Announcing a new communications strategy?
Or does it hint at a possible presidential bid by the pope, as some eyebrow-raising posts on social media have playfully teased?
For example, when Christopher Hale, a Democratic activist and author of the Substack site Letters from Leo, posted on X about the Pope’s meeting with Axelrod to his more than 65,000 followers, one user was mildly amused.
“Pope Leo will be visiting Iowa, informed sources say,” X user Keith Nagy, who works on the communications staff for California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, humorously responded to his 31,000 followers with an AI image of what appears to be the Pope in a cornfield.
And Oettingermentum, an X user with over 110,000 followers, cheekily asked the question in an April 11 post: “Who is the funniest Democrat who can win in 2028 and ultimately be a really good president?”
Renowned menswear writer Derek Guy responded to X’s more than 1.4 million followers: “The Pope.”
Jokes aside, Leo has risen to prominence on the world stage in recent weeks, emerging as a serious critic of the Trump administration’s war on Iran.
But could he really run for president?
Because the Pope is an American, he technically qualifies as a natural-born American citizen under the U.S. Constitution as a person who is at least 35 years old (Pope Leo is 70) and a 14-year resident who can run for president of the United States.
But don’t get your hopes up. Hale told USA TODAY that church law, which prohibits clergy from holding public office, would make it nearly functionally impossible for Leo to hold public office, not to mention the fact that the pope is a foreign head of state and dual loyalty conflicts.
“The pope has no intention of running for president. Legally he can, but he’s not actually running for office,” said Hale, who oversaw national Catholic outreach for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. “He is also a registered voter who voted absentee in the 2024 general election, but we do not know who he voted for.”
Additionally, Father Francis X. Clooney, professor of theology and comparative theology at Harvard Divinity School, said ordained people are strongly encouraged not to seek public office.
“The idea that clergy, ordained people, priests, bishops, cardinals, the pope are often told not to get involved in politics,” Clooney said. “But while priests and bishops can speak out when there are issues that are in the interest of the community, they are unlikely to run for public office.”
Clooney recalled that in 1981, Pope John Paul II asked then-Massachusetts Representative Father Robert Drinan, the first Catholic priest to vote in Congress, to choose between his parliamentary duties and his priestly duties. Drinan, a Democrat who ran on an anti-war platform and defeated 14-term incumbent Philip Philbin, served in the House of Representatives for 10 years. Mr. Drinan criticized the United States’ role in the Vietnam War and introduced the first impeachment resolution against Richard Nixon.
Leo criticizes President Trump’s Iran war
President Donald Trump is used to being criticized not only by Democrats but also by pro-MAGA media figures for his Truth social posts last week.
But the English-speaking pope has emerged as an influential American critic living in the Vatican, using his position on the world stage as a moral counterpoint to the president’s more bombastic rhetoric and aggressive use of executive power.
Leo’s recent public comments on social media criticizing the war have even led to speculation that the president may have actually threatened him.
Unlike previous popes, who offered more general critiques of political and economic systems as well as cultural and social values, Leo is specific. For example, he used his Palm Sunday message to directly reference President Trump’s war against Iran, saying that God “does not hear and reject the prayers of those who wage war.”
This was in contrast to some conservative religious leaders in the United States, such as the Reverend Franklin Graham, who prayed for victory over Iran.
It should be noted that Pope Leo’s worldview as the leader of the Catholic Church does not easily fit neatly into any party in American politics. He has spoken out against the excesses of greed and capitalism, but he has also denounced causes cherished by American liberals, such as abortion rights. Before becoming pope, he reposted messages and editorials on X (formerly Twitter) that were seen as critical of Trump and now-Catholic Vice President J.D. Vance. And public records show he has voted in the Illinois Republican primary in the past.
However, Pope Leo told reporters on April 7 that President Trump’s recent apocalyptic threats against Iran are “truly unacceptable.”
The pope urged the audience to consider that “many innocent people” in Iran, including children and the elderly, had become “victims of this escalation.”
He preached peace, adding: “I would like to call on the citizens of all concerned countries to contact the authorities, political leaders and parliamentarians to urge them to work for peace and always reject war.”
Will Obama meet with Leo?
Regarding the possibility of a meeting between the Pope and Mr. Obama, the former president said several months ago that he would like to meet the Pope because they have things in common, such as their hometown and favorite baseball team.
“You can meet anybody, whether they’re presidents or former presidents, so I met a lot of people. Someone I haven’t met yet, but I’m looking forward to meeting, and who I hope I get a chance to meet sometime in the future, is the new pope from Chicago, a White Sox fan,” Obama said on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast in February.
Marian Cusimano Love, chair of the political science department at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., said she wouldn’t be surprised if the former president and the pope met someday.
“I’m sure they have mutual respect,” Cusimano-Love said.
Don’t “read too much into” the meeting with Axelrod
On the other hand, not much is known about Axelrod’s visit to Pope Leo.
“He didn’t try to read too much into what was going on in the meeting,” Clooney said.
Cusimano Love said Axelrod may have met with the pope for a variety of reasons. Axelrod and his wife Susan are deeply involved in Chicago’s Catholic community. Her daughter Lauren, who has suffered from severe epilepsy since childhood, is a resident of Misericordia, a residential community and Catholic Charities organization in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Cusimano-Rab said that while some people would like to see the pope from a presidential perspective, he would not consider that position.
“The role of the pope is much bigger than that. He is the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics in 193 countries, which is much larger than the electorate that the president has to compete with,” Cusimano Love said. “He is a human being to everyone, and his concern for human life and dignity is a value that transcends political, religious and cultural boundaries.”
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