Pope Leo, during a Saturday vigil for peace, called out the “delusion of omnipotence” that he believes fuels war.
“In prayer, our limited human potential is joined to the infinite potential of God. Thoughts, words and actions break the demonic cycle of evil and are put at the service of the Kingdom of God,” he said during a prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica.
He continued: “A kingdom in which there is no sword, no drone, no vengeance, no trivialization of evil, no unjust gain, but only dignity, understanding and forgiveness. Here we find a bulwark against the delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and which is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive.’
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Pope Leo XIV leads a vigil for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Saturday. (Gregorio Borgia/AP Photo)
‘Enough of the idolatry of self and money. Enough of showing off power. Enough of war,” he wrote. “True power is manifested in the service of life.”
Among the pews was also the Archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu.
Leo’s words came on the same day that Vice President JD Vance and a US delegation began face-to-face talks with Iran amid an uneasy ceasefire.
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They were some of the US pope’s first strong words yet, after he called President Donald Trump’s threat against Iran “truly unacceptable” on Tuesday.
“Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire Iranian people, and this is truly unacceptable,” the Pope said earlier this week. “There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more so a moral issue for the good of the entire population.”
Pope Leo (Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)
Trump had written on Truth Social: “An entire civilization will die tonight and never come back. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will…God bless the great people of Iran!”
Hours later, the president declared a two-week ceasefire on the condition that Iran agree to “the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz,” the president wrote in another post.
As the high-stakes talks began in Islamabad on Saturday, Trump told reporters outside the White House: “We win no matter what happens. Maybe they make a deal, maybe they don’t.”
Islamabad will host peace talks between Iran and the US on Saturday. (Farooq Naeem/AFP via Getty Images)
For more than a month, the pope limited his comments to quiet calls for peace, but in his Easter blessing last Sunday he urged “those with weapons to put them down. Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace.”
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Leo also invoked what he said were the last words Pope Francis spoke to the world from the same balcony a year ago, in which the late pontiff warned of a “globalization of indifference.”
“What a great thirst for death, for murder we witness every day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of the world,” Leo said, quoting Francis.
