James' World 2

Hmmmm … Sic Semper Tyrannis!

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Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced the Iranian regime’s killing of protesters but stressed that, “as a pastor,” he cannot support the US-Israeli war with Iran.

The pope’s remarks, made to reporters on board the papal plane returning from his trip to Africa, follow President Donald Trump’s attacks on the pontiff for his stance on the Middle East conflict.

During an in-flight press conference, the pope also addressed the topic of immigration, saying that in some cases immigrants are being treated “worse than pets.”

The first American pope told CNN last month that he hoped Trump would find an “off-ramp” to end the war in Iran, and he spoke out against justifying conflict on religious grounds. But in the hours before the pope took off for Africa on April 13, the US president sharply criticized the pope.

“As a pastor, I cannot be in favor of war,” Leo told reporters flying with him from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. “I would like to encourage all to make efforts to look for answers that come from a culture of peace and not from a place of hate and division.”

Leo said the US and Israeli bombing of Iran has created a “chaotic situation for the global economy,” along with “a whole population in Iran, of innocent people, which is suffering because of this war.” Highlighting the human cost of conflict, the pope revealed that he carries a photo of a Lebanese Muslim boy, who had carried a sign welcoming the pontiff to the country at the end of last year and who was killed in the war.

The question of Iran is evidently very complex,” he told reporters flying with him from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to Rome. “The negotiations they are trying to do — one day Iran says yes, and the United States says no, and vice versa, and we don’t know where it goes.”

Regardless of whether “there is regime change or no regime change,” the emphasis should be on preventing the “death of so many innocents,” Leo said. He cited a letter from the families of school children who died on the first day of the Iran war.

“For me, if there is regime change or not, it’s not clear what the regime is at this moment after the first days of the … attacks of Israel and the United States against Iran,” he said.

The pope, who alternated between English, Spanish, and Italian when answering questions, also criticized the Iranian regime’s killing of protesters in his first remarks on the topic.

Asked if he condemned Tehran’s deadly crackdown on protests in January, Leo said: “I condemn all actions that are unjust. I condemn the taking of people’s lives. I condemn capital punishment. I believe that human life is to be respected,” Leo, 70, said. “When a regime, when a country, takes decisions which take away the lives of people unjustly, then obviously that is something that should be condemned.”

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