Pope Rejects US Claim That God Has Picked a Side in the Iran War

The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia.

Photographer: Tom Brenner/Bloomberg

Pope Leo XIV challenged the Trump administration’s argument that God is on the side of the US in the conflict with Iran, the latest in a series of rebukes even as the Vatican and the White House denied any rift following reports of a contentious meeting in January.

“God does not bless any conflict,” the pontiff wrote in a Friday post on X. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace.”