Image Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI / Contributor / Getty Images 
Recently installed Pope Leo XIV appeared to reprimand President Donald Trump for his strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In a post on X on Sunday, the new pontiff said that war is pointless and solves nothing.
“War does not solve problems; on the contrary, it amplifies them and inflicts deep wounds on the history of peoples, which take generations to heal,” Pope Leo Tweeted.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, or stolen futures. May diplomacy silence the weapons! May nations chart their futures with works of peace, not with violence and bloodstained conflicts!
On Saturday, US B2 bombers attacked three nuclear sites in Iran, at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, after more than a week of uncertainty about US intentions following Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic-missile sites and senior military figures.
In a post on Truth Social last night, President Donald Trump congratulated the US military and said, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE.”
In a separate, later, post, the President warned Iran that retaliation against the US for the strikes would prompt an even bigger military response.
Iran has reacted with defiance to the strikes, vowing to continue enriching uranium.
On Sunday, the Kremlin warned that several nations are prepared to supply Iran with nuclear weapons.
Since Pope Leo’s election, there has been significant debate about his likely attitude towards President Trump and the MAGA movement.
His predecessor Francis was openly critical of Trump.
In February, in a letter to Catholic bishops in the US, Francis said Trump’s mass-deportation policy was a “crisis” that was damaging “the dignity of many men and women.”
In the same letter, he also attempted to correct Vice President Vance’s invocation of the medieval concept of the ordo amoris, or “rightly ordered love,” to justify the Trump admin’s policy. Vance, himself a Catholic, was arguing that there’s a clear hierarchy of love, and that love for one’s own community and nation should be considered primary, before love for the rest of the world.
During Trump’s first election campaign, Francis visited Mexico and said, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian.”
Pope Leo’s brother, John Prevost, has suggested his brother “will be following in Francis’s footsteps.”
“I know he’s not happy with what’s going on with immigration. I know that for a fact. How far he’ll go with it is anyone’s guess, but he won’t just sit back. I don’t think he’ll be the silent one.”
