Crux

ROME – On his flight from Rome to Africa Monday, Pope Leo responded to an overnight rant by United States President Donald Trump on social media, saying he’s not afraid of the U.S. administration and seeks to promote the Gospel value of peace.

“I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do,” the pope told reporters on his brief flight to Algiers April 13.

“We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker,” he said.

Leo said he did not want to enter into debate and clarified that the statements he makes condemning war and the violation of international law “are certainly not meant as attacks on anyone,” but he said he will also “not shy away from pronouncing the message of the Gospel.”

The Gospel is very clear, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’” he said, and invited people of all nations “to look for ways of building bridges for peace and reconciliation, of looking for ways to avoid war.”

“To put my message on the same plane as what the President is attempting to do here is not understanding 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,” he said.

(Crux Now exclusive video by Elise Ann Allen.)

Pope Leo’s remarks came in response to a post by U.S. President Donald Trump on his social media platform Truth Social calling the pontiff “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.”

Trump implied that Leo is afraid of his administration and alleged that the Catholic Church and other Christian leaders sought to arrest priests and ministers who disobeyed COVID-19 prevention policies.

The American president said that Leo “doesn’t get it” when it comes to his MAGA policies and said he “doesn’t want” a pope that is allegedly in favor of Iran’s possession of nuclear weapons or who is against the U.S.’s attack on Venezuela over drug trafficking.

Among other things, Trump said Leo would not have been elected without him and that the pontiff “should be thankful” and “get his act together.”

Trump’s remarks also come after a CBS 60 Minutes program aired interviewing three top U.S. cardinals: Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington D.C., and Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey.

In the interview, McElroy called the U.S.’s Iran war immoral, saying, “in the Catholic teaching this is not a just war.”

“The Catholic faith teaches us there are certain prerequisites for a just war. You can’t go for a variety of different aims. You have to have a focused aim, which is to restore justice and restore peace. That’s it,” he said.

While the Iranian regime is “abominable” and “should be removed,” McElroy said, “this is a war of choice that we went to, and I think it’s embedded in a wider moment in the United States that’s worrying, which is this: We’re seeing before us the possibility of war after war after war.”

Likewise, Cupich lamented that “We’re dehumanizing the victims of war by turning the suffering of people and the killing of children and our own soldiers into entertainment.”

Tobin, referring to the United States’s immigration policy and ICE enforcement of mass deportations warned that these actions “can actually violate other guarantees of our Constitution and Bill of Rights” and voiced his belief that “somebody’s got to call that out and I’m not the only one.”

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen