LUANDA, Angola (AP) \u2014 And in Africa, the lion roared. <\/p>\n
There is a case to be made that Pope Leo XIV, the careful, reserved, Midwestern Augustinian, found his voice on his epic trip through Africa, blasting the \u201chandful of tyrants\u201d<\/a> and \u201cchains of corruption\u201d<\/a> that have held parts of the continent hostage for centuries.<\/p>\n But the fact is, Leo has been preaching this kind of message<\/a> for a while now, including in the context of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. It just took U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s unprecedented broadside and Vice President JD Vance\u2019s claims of theological superiority<\/a> for many people to pay attention, especially American Catholics.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Pope Leo might give the impression that he is engaging, in his quiet way and with authority, and this is how it looks to the world press and social media,\u201d Cardinal Michael Czerny, a top Vatican official and aide to Leo, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in fact the Holy Father\u2019s homilies and talks in Africa have been prepared, well in advance, in terms of the local African reality and the church,\u201d Czerny said. \u201cSo, if they seem relevant to the current wars, controversy, this reminds us of Jesus saying, \u2018Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Leo tried to make that point when he came to the back of Air Pope One on April 18, en route from Cameroon to Angola, and complained that \u201ca certain narrative\u201d<\/a> had taken hold suggesting he was in a feud with Trump over the Iran war and his peace messages in Africa were directed at the president.<\/p>\n Leo insisted his words about tyrants and the religious justification for war had been wrongly interpreted and he was referring only to the African context, and to a separatist conflict in western Cameroon, in particular.<\/p>\n The thin line of the pope\u2019s explanation<\/p>\n But Leo also was trying to have it both ways. Yes, he was talking about the separatist conflict at a peace meeting in Bamenda. Yes, he was preaching the Gospel message of peace and fraternity. But he also has been talking about Trump<\/a>, a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cThat distancing of Pope Leo from some interpretations was really a move to de-escalate a very dangerous situation,\u201d said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Trinity College Dublin. \u201cBecause the Vatican needs the United States to restore some kind of peaceful \u2014 not order \u2014 but a horizon of peace, a hope of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n Leo criticized Trump, directly, before he got to Africa. And in one remarkable comment two weeks ago, he encouraged the faithful to contact their congressional representatives to demand an end to the war.<\/p>\n The headline from the April 7 encounter outside Leo\u2019s country house in Castel Gandolfo was that Leo had called Trump\u2019s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization \u201ctruly unacceptable.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n But the more significant message followed. \u201cI would invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war,\u201d Leo said.<\/p>\n Faggioli termed the comment \u201cthe Vatican\u2019s nuclear option,\u201d making a direct appeal to U.S. voters to take a stand, because it genuinely feared Trump was about to take the Iran war in a vastly more catastrophic direction. <\/p>\n What came before Leo\u2019s unprecedented appeal<\/p>\n The Holy See had never resorted to such a directly political message from a pope even at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when a Catholic president \u2014 John F. Kennedy \u2014 was on the verge of a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union, Faggioli said.<\/p>\n At that moment, Pope John XXIII did make a public appeal \u2014 his famous Oct. 25, 1962, radio address \u2014 with a strong, direct plea for peace including to \u201cthose who have the responsibility of power\u201d to \u201cdo everything in their power to save the peace.\u201d<\/p>\n The pope also sent private letters to Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and worked behind the scenes through diplomatic channels to de-escalate the situation. But he didn\u2019t urge U.S. voters to essentially choose which Catholic to listen to: their president or their pope.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is at stake now is that at a time of war, loyalties of Catholics are tested in a particular way,\u201d Faggioli said. He added that however the situation ultimately resolves itself, the tension will complicate any future political aspirations of Catholics seeking high office, whether Vance on the Republican side or California Gov. Gavin Newsom on the Democratic side, as long as a U.S.-born pope is still in Rome.<\/p>\n Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, said Leo has consistently operated \u201con a higher plane\u201d but American Catholics are used to church discussion of morality in the context of sexuality, gender and abortion, and it\u2019s jarring to process foreign policy through a moral lens.<\/p>\n \u201cSo JD Vance can say the pope should stick to morality,\u201d she said, \u201cbut war and peace are ancient moral issues.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, the under-secretary in the Vatican\u2019s culture department, said Leo is continuing in the tradition of popes past to preach the Gospel message of peace. What has changed, he said, was how Trump reacted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe strong reaction arrived from America,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was America that reacted to Leo\u2019s words, and not vice versa.\u201d <\/p>\n Even with his direct comments about Trump, Leo was not engaging in an attack, Spadaro said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very dangerous to imagine that the pope is fighting with Trump, because it means demeaning the pope to a level of contrast, one against the other, which Trump may want but that the pope has no intention of doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n New role, same Leo, Vatican official says<\/p>\n Spadaro added that from his perch, Leo hasn\u2019t changed at all from when he was known as Robert Prevost, the Chicago-born missionary priest.<\/p>\n \u201cI see the Prevost I\u2019ve always seen,\u201d Spadaro said. \u201cLet\u2019s say it\u2019s the backdrop that has changed, so his calm yet very direct style stands in stark contrast to a chaotic scenario, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s striking.\u201d<\/p>\n For better or worse, the incredible saga of Trump, the war and geopolitics seems far removed from Leo\u2019s day-to-day ministering to his flock in Africa, who have turned out in droves to welcome the American pope in each stop on his four-nation tour.<\/p>\n The polyglot pope has made it easy for them to hear his words, delivering speeches, homilies and prayers in the languages of the faithful: French in Algeria, English and French in Cameroon, Portuguese in Angola and, starting Tuesday, Spanish in Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n Lucineia Francisco left her family behind on Sunday so she could see Leo at the Shrine of Mama Muxima<\/a>, Angola\u2019s most popular pilgrimage destination. Some 30,000 people turned out for Leo\u2019s rosary prayer.<\/p>\n \u201cMy kids were crying to come, but I said no,\u201d Francisco said. \u201cThis is a spiritual journey that I\u2019m really going to face on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n