Pope Leo celebrated a God of peace, not war. Trump should listen to him.
Pope Leo XIV’s Palm Sunday sermon warned against invoking God to justify violence.
If President Trump really hopes to be “knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door,” in Bob Dylan’s famous words, he should pay more attention to Pope Leo XIV — and less to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
In his first Palm Sunday sermon, the pope had a message for those who wage war in God’s name. Don’t do it.
To the tens of thousands who gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope said: “This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” Quoting scripture, the pope added, “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Your hands are full of blood.”
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While the pope didn’t name names, his words seemed aimed at Hegseth, who recently prayed for US troops to inflict “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy. … We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”
Perhaps coincidentally, on Palm Sunday, Trump posted a letter on Truth Social from Franklin Graham, the son of the late legendary televangelist Billy Graham, which assured him that his “soul is secure” and he is “bound for heaven.”
Trump spends a considerable amount of time musing about his soul’s final destination, and it’s not for me to say where that might be. While the pope certainly didn’t address it, reading between the lines of his sermon, it does seem that the leader of the Catholic Church has concerns about an administration that casts the cruelty and violence of war as some higher calling for this country and its military.
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Good for Leo. As contributing Globe Opinion columnist Alex Beam recently wrote about the role of the Catholic Church in debating the Iran war, “I admire anyone willing to speak for moral authority in a time of rampant dissembling and ‘relative’ truths.” So do I.
Some see Leo, the first American-born pope, as too cautious and diplomatic. He is certainly choosing his words carefully and avoiding direct attacks that call out Trump by name. Still, his message comes across. He has spoken out against Trump’s immigration policies, and suggested that Trump’s treatment of migrants should not be considered pro-life. He now seems to be speaking out more strongly against the war with Iran, moving from a “heartfelt” wish that “diplomacy” would prevail to Palm Sunday’s more overt rhetoric.
Certainly, there’s dissension within the church regarding Trump’s policies, just as there is in the country. The sharpest example is Vice President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019 and who backs Trump policies on immigration and war.
But to revel in the suffering of others and to call for more of it in the name of religion, as Hegseth has done, is chilling, especially as it applies to war. As an Army civilian who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Washington Post, if troops are trained to believe that “God is on our side, what precludes us from doing anything we want to win?” To that I would add, what stops the other side from doing the same?
Hegseth has injected religion into the Pentagon by holding monthly evangelical worship services, the Post reported. Under his leadership, is the United States now fighting a holy war with a Muslim country or one based on goals that have nothing to do with Hegseth’s personal religious beliefs and everything to do with America’s tactical interests?
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Those are questions that Trump should be asking himself, both as commander-in-chief and hopeful candidate for heaven.
Pick your muse, Mr. President.
Is it the blood-thirsty Hegseth, who at a recent prayer service read a passage from the Book of Psalms that said, “I pursued my enemies and overtook them. I did not turn back [till] they were consumed. I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet.”
Or is it the pope, who in his sermon on Sunday reminded Christians that when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, “He revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence. Rather than saving himself, he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, embracing every cross borne in every time and place throughout human history.”
In making his choice, Trump should reread the letter from Graham that he posted on social media. Dated Oct. 15, 2025, Graham praised Trump not for waging war but for overseeing a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and for the return of hostages. “This is an answer to much prayer,” Graham wrote. “Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ (Matthew 5:9) — and Mr. President, that is what you are.”
Agree with that assessment of Trump or not — when you’re knockin’ on heaven’s door, the key of peacemaker is the one I would choose to try to open it.
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