{"id":941475,"date":"2026-05-06T12:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/941475\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:05:27","slug":"pope-leo-hits-back-at-trump-over-claim-he-is-endangering-catholics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/941475\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo hits back at Trump over claim he is \u2018endangering Catholics\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pope Leo has hit back at Donald Trump<\/a> over his baseless claim that the pontiff is \u201cendangering Catholics<\/a>\u201d by supporting Iran<\/a>\u2019s nuclear programme. <\/p>\n

In his latest attack on the Pope, the US<\/a> president claimed over the weekend that the pontiff \u201cthinks it\u2019s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon<\/a>\u201d without providing evidence. <\/p>\n

Speaking outside the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope did not directly respond to Trump by name but said that the Catholic Church had always been opposed to nuclear weapons<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace,\u201d he said. \u201cIf someone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so truthfully. For years, the Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt on that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments came ahead of a challenging meeting with US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Thursday. The US ambassador to the Holy See told reporters the meeting would include a \u201cfrank conversation\u201d about the Trump administration\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

\"PopePope Leo XIV addresses the crowd during the weekly general audience at St Peter\u2019s Square, in the Vatican, on Wednesday 6 May (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cNations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is … through fraternity and authentic dialogue,\u201d Brian Burch said. \u201cI think the secretary is coming here in that spirit, to have a frank conversation about US policy, to engage in dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump and Pope Leo, the first US-born Pope, clashed publicly last month over the president\u2019s sabre-rattling during the then-hot conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n

The unprecedented rift between the US president and the head of the Catholic Church saw President Trump lambast the pontiff as being \u201cweak on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for foreign policy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The comments drew sharp backlash from Christians across the political spectrum. Mr Trump also faced criticism from his base for sharing an AI rendering of himself many took to be an imitation of Jesus<\/a>. Mr Trump said he thought he was portraying a doctor.<\/p>\n

At the height of the dispute last month, vice president JD Vance, a Catholic, said the Pope should be \u201ccareful when he talks about matters of theology\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldDonald Trump posted an image of himself as a \u2018doctor\u2019, he said, on Truth Social at the height of his spat with the Pope (@realDonaldTrump\/Truth Social)<\/p>\n

The public disagreement forced a wedge between the Trump administration and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who had long been seen as an ally in Europe.<\/p>\n

Ms Meloni called the comments \u201cunacceptable\u201d and expressed solidarity with Pope Leo. She said she would not feel comfortable in a society where religious leaders do what political leaders say.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump risked further alienating himself as he called the Italian PM \u201cunacceptable\u201d for her comments, adding that he was \u201cshocked by her\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought she was brave, but I was wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Rubio is expected to meet Ms Meloni and Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani on Friday. US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Mr Rubio\u2019s meetings with the Italian officials \u201cwill be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[15350,44888,12,18175,8547,26],"class_list":["post-941475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-christianity","tag-horizontal","tag-news","tag-pope","tag-religion","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116527545046919097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}