Church against ‘all nuclear weapons’ says Leo after latest Trump claims
‘The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace. I simply hope to be heard for the sake of the value of the word of God.’
The Pope asserted the Church’s opposition to nuclear weapons and teaching on “just war” after further public criticisms from the US president.
“If someone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the Gospel, let him do so truthfully,” Pope Leo told reporters as he left Castel Gandolfo on Tuesday evening. “For years, the Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt on that point.”
He was responding to a question about President Donald Trump’s claim on a US radio show on Monday that Leo “thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon” and was “endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people”, echoing his criticism of the Pope on social media in mid-April.
“I have spoken from the very moment I was elected – and now we are approaching the anniversary – I said ‘Peace be with you.’ The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace,” Leo said. “I simply hope to be heard for the sake of the value of the word of God.”
He also said that self-defence “has traditionally always been allowed by the Church” but discussion of just war had become “a very complex problem”.
“You have to analyse it on many levels, but ever since the entrance into the nuclear age the whole concept of war has be re-evaluated in terms [of] today,” he continued.
“I always believe that it’s much better to enter into dialogue than to look for arms and to support the arms industry, which gains billions of dollars each year, instead of sitting down at the table solving our problems and using money to solve humanitarian issues.”
Nevertheless, Leo said he hoped for a “good dialogue” with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he visits Rome on Thursday, observing: “I think the issues he is coming for are not today’s issues.”
Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, Rubio said there was “a lot to talk about with the Vatican” despite President Trump’s clash with the Pope.
“It’s a trip we had planned before and obviously we had some stuff that happened,” he told reporters, citing common interests in the defence of religious liberty in Africa and the Church’s role distributing US humanitarian aid in Cuba as potential topics of discussion.
“The Pope is obviously the vicar of Christ,” continued Rubio, one of several Catholics in Trump’s cabinet. “But he’s also the head of a nation-state and it’s an organisation that has a presence in over a hundred-something countries around the world and we engage with the Vatican quite a bit because they’re present in many different places.
“So we have a lot to talk about with them and I engage with them quite a bit on that front, so the trip is really not tied to anything other than the fact that it would be normal for us to engage with them and other secretaries of state have done that in the past.”
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