{"id":469890,"date":"2026-05-05T17:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/469890\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:57:13","slug":"trump-says-pope-leo-is-endangering-a-lot-of-catholics-in-continuing-row-over-iran-war-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/469890\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says Pope Leo is \u2018endangering a lot of Catholics\u2019 in continuing row over Iran war \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US <\/a>president Donald Trump<\/a> has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV<\/a>, accusing the pontiff of \u201cendangering a lot of Catholics<\/a>\u201d because \u201che thinks it\u2019s fine for Iran <\/a>to have a nuclear weapon\u201d.<\/p>\n

The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio<\/a>, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump\u2019s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Hugh Hewitt, a prominent conservative radio talkshow host on the US-based Salem News network, Trump said the pope \u201cwould rather talk about the fact that it\u2019s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s very good\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people,\u201d the US president added. \u201cBut I guess if it\u2019s up to the pope, he thinks it\u2019s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.\u201d <\/p>\n

Leo has never said that Iran should have nuclear weapons, but has repeatedly opposed the war on the country and the subsequent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, calling for ceasefires and dialogue.<\/p>\n

Brian Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See, said on Tuesday that he expected a \u201cfrank\u201d meeting between Rubio, a Catholic, and Leo at the Apostolic Palace on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cNations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is … through fraternity and authentic dialogue,\u201d Burch told reporters, adding that he thought Rubio was coming to the Vatican \u201cin that spirit, to have a frank conversation about US policy, to engage in dialogue\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Marco Rubio to meet Pope Leo in first contact with US cabinet since Trump attackOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Burch said he did not accept the idea that there was \u201csome deep rift\u201d between the US and the Vatican, saying that Rubio was coming so that each side could \u201cbetter understand each other, and to work through, if there are differences, certainly to talk through that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldDonald Trump and an AI-generated image he posted on his Truth Social platform depicting himself as Jesus Christ. Photograph: Mandel Ngan\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The trip, which coincides with the first anniversary of Leo\u2019s papacy, was organised after Trump lashed out at the pope in April, calling him weak and saying he was not doing a very good job as pontiff. Trump also shared an AI-generated image depicting himself as Christ, before deleting it and saying it had actually been a portrayal of him as a doctor.<\/p>\n

Rubio will also endeavour to patch things up with the Italian government after Trump berated its prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, previously one of his closest allies in Europe, for calling out his remarks against Leo, rebuking her government for not supporting the strikes on Iran and threatening to withdraw US troops from Italy as a result.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump vs the pope: How Leo came to say he has \u2018no fear of the Trump \u200badministration\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Rubio will also meet the Vatican\u2019s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, before meeting Meloni and the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

The US vice-president, JD Vance \u2013 a Catholic convert \u2013 has also criticised the pope, saying the Vatican should \u201cstick to matters of morality\u201d and that Leo should be careful when it came to talking about theology and war.<\/p>\n

Rubio and Vance attended the pope\u2019s inauguration in May last year and had a private audience with him the day after, during which they handed him an invitation from Trump to the White House that Leo has not yet taken up. <\/p>\n

\u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,2512,356,18,13,14,6,19,18929,17,11,12,15,16,6587,5,2515,7,8,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-469890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catholic-church","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-marco-rubio","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories","28":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116523266643913872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469890","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=469890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}