Washington, 13 April

US-born Pope Leo XIV said he had “no fear” of Donald Trump after the US President launched an extraordinary broadside criticism against him. Trump said that Pope Leo caters to the “radical Left” and called him “weak” and “terrible”.

Pope Leo told press while en route to Algeria that he was not making a direct attack against Trump or anyone else with his general appeal for peace and criticisms of the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fuelling the Iran wars and other conflicts around the world.

Pope Leo suggested that Trump has not understood “what the message of the Gospel is… And I'm sorry to hear that but I will continue on what I believe is the mission of the Church in the world today.”

“I will not enter into debate,” he added.  “The message of the Gospels are clear: Blessed are the peacemakers….I will continue to speak out loudly against war…. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to ‌stand ‌up and say there’s a better way,” 

Trump had delivered his attack on Pope Leo on Truth Social on Sunday, after the pontiff appeared to grow increasingly critical of the war on Iran, and even said that God does not support wars.

“Pope Leo is weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy,” Trump wrote. “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon…. (or) a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela.”

The President alsosaid that the Vatican Church installed Leo to “deal with Donald Trump”. He later doubled down on the attacks and told press that “I don’t like Pope Leo”.

While it's not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it's exceedingly rare for the pope to directly criticise a US leader — and Trump's stinging response is equally uncommon, if not more so.