{"id":423072,"date":"2026-04-06T16:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/423072\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:37:17","slug":"a-tale-of-two-easter-messages-from-donald-trump-and-pope-leo-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/423072\/","title":{"rendered":"A tale of two Easter messages from Donald Trump and Pope Leo \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV<\/a> has been more forthright and relentless in his criticism of the Iran war<\/a> than any other leader. And he\u2019s becoming more outspoken.<\/p>\n

The pope vs the president<\/b><\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV used his Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi address yesterday to call on those who have weapons to lay them down and those with the power to unleash war to choose peace. Donald Trump<\/a> marked the holiest day in the Christian calendar by posting a message stuffed with expletives threatening to bomb Iran\u2019s civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cTuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin\u2019 Strait, you crazy bastards, or you\u2019ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,\u201d he wrote on his Truth Social account yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

A day earlier, Trump invoked the Almighty in another social media post outlining the same threat to Iran if it does not agree to his terms by tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is running out \u2013 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!”<\/p>\n

Ten days ago, defence secretary Pete Hegseth asked Pentagon officials to pray for overwhelming violence for those who deserved no mercy. He used a prayer he said a military chaplain gave American troops during the operation to abduct Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last January.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet justice be executed swiftly and without remorse, that evil may be driven back, and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth belongs to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a conservative network that promotes Christian Nationalism, and he has brought his faith into his running of the Pentagon. He hosts monthly prayer meetings and has sought to reform the military chaplain corps, which provides spiritual support to service personnel of all faiths and none, to make it more overtly religious.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo appeared to rebuke Hegseth on Palm Sunday when he described the US and Israeli campaign against Iran as atrocious and said that Jesus could not be used to justify war.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them,\u201d he said, before quoting from the prophet Isaiah.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo has been more forceful, consistent and relentless than any other world leader in his criticism of the war against Iran. He has called for a permanent ban on aerial bombing, and last month pleaded with Trump to find an off-ramp to end the war before Easter.<\/p>\n

The pope did not mention Iran specifically in his address yesterday and he has in the past also called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. But he said yesterday that peace should not be imposed by force but through dialogue, \u201cnot with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them\u201d.<\/p>\n

This message resonates throughout the Global South, and it chimes with the call from China and Pakistan last week for an immediate ceasefire in Iran and a peace process based on respect for sovereignty, international law and the primacy of the United Nations. <\/p>\n

In a sermon on Holy Thursday, the pope went further, linking the colonial distortion of the Christian mission to today\u2019s political reality and characterising Christ\u2019s sacrifice as a rejection of imperialism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cross is part of the mission: the sending becomes more bitter and frightening, but also more freeing and transformative. The imperialist occupation of the world is thus disrupted from within; the violence that until now has been the law is unmasked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Later this month, Leo will make his first trip to Africa as pope, visiting Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. The Chicago-born pope has declined an invitation from vice-president JD Vance to visit the United States for the country\u2019s 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4th.<\/p>\n

Please let me know what you think and send your comments, thoughts or suggestions for topics you would like to see covered to denis.globalbriefing@irishtimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV has been more forthright and relentless in his criticism of the Iran war than any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,137837,6,18929,45036,11,12,15,16,5,2515,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-423072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-global-briefing","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116358745451748751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}