How Pope Leo explains the statement about “tyrants” after it was interpreted as addressed to Trump. “It's not in my best interest”
Pope Leo XIV said on Saturday that international media reports of remarks he made during the African tour “were not accurate in all respects”.
The Sovereign Pontiff said that the speech given two days ago in Cameroon, where he complained that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”, was not aimed at US President Donald Trump.
“It had been prepared two weeks ago, long before the president made any comments about me and the message of peace that I am promoting,” Papa Leon told reporters in English on Saturday aboard the plane he took to Angola.
“It was interpreted as if I tried to enter into a debate with the president, which is not in my interest at all,” added the first American pope in history.
Leon, a native of Chicago, kept a relatively low-key profile for a pope during his first 10 months at the Vatican, but on the Africa tour he adopted a forceful speaking style, harshly denouncing war, inequality and global leaders.
Pope Leon, criticized by Donald Trump
Last Sunday, US President Donald Trump criticized Pope Leo, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy”. On Tuesday, in an interview with the Italian publication Corriere della Sera, the US leader said that the Sovereign Pontiff “does not understand and should not talk about war, because he has no idea what is going on.”
“Can someone tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed protesters in the last two months and that it is completely unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear bomb,” Donald Trump also said, this time on the Truth Social platform, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
Amid a wave of rebuke from the White House, in Cameroon on Thursday, Pope Leo criticized leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”. In addition, he condemned leaders who use religious language to justify wars and called for “a decisive change in direction.”
“The masters of war pretend not to know that it only takes a moment to destroy, but often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” he added.
