“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be.”
Very unkind, especially about the poor French. That was the late Abu Muhammad al-Adnani al-Shami speaking in 2014, a leading figure in ISIS.
It is words like this which Pope Leo XIV may have been thinking of when he wrote this year’s Message for the World Day of Peace.
“It has become increasingly common to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, and to justify violence and armed struggle in the name of religion. Believers must actively refute, above all by the witness of their lives, these forms of blasphemy that profane the holy name of God,” he said.
But it was not just Mr Al-Adnani, may he rest in peace, that the pope was referring to. How about the mastermind of Operation Epic Fury, Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of War?
A few days ago, this gentleman prayed at the Pentagon for his troops: “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
Lest it be thought that this was a slip of the tongue, he continued, invoking the Psalms: “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation… I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed.”
Mr Hegseth is not a Catholic and he is unlikely to page through L’Osservatore Romano over breakfast. However, it’s clear that his Old Testament approach to war is not shared by the pope, even though they were both born under the Stars and Stripes.
On Palm Sunday, shortly after the Secretary’s pep talk for the lads, Pope Leo gave a homily in which he repudiated Hegseth’s deployment of religious rhetoric.
“Brothers and sisters, 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, saying: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood” (Is 1:15),” he said. “God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons! Remember that you are brothers and sisters!”
Pope Leo XIV is not supporting Iran. Iran is run by theocratic thugs who want to destroy Israel and who support violence against their opponents across the Middle East. In their hands, nuclear weapons would threaten to set off a global conflagration. But Pope Leo, like his predecessors, insists that the aim of a just war is peace, not domination and humiliation. Christians are supposed to beat their swords into ploughshares, not beat the bad guy into a pulp.
Americans have a track record of ignoring papal pleas for peace. As the United States girded its loins for the Second Gulf War in 2003, Pope John Paul II energetically called for a peaceful solution: “No to war! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity.”
Vatican diplomats argued that it would not be a just war as the “evils and disorders” produced by the conflict would be greater than the evil to be eliminated. But the Bush Administration chose a different course.
The result: hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq, a vicious civil war in Syria, the horrors of ISIS.
Hegseth and Trump are demanding the unconditional surrender of the Iranian regime. They are threatening to bomb the country’s desalination plants and its power plants, which will lead to many civilian deaths. A century ago, another pope predicted the outcome of this approach.
“Remember,” said Benedict XV in 1915, “that Nations do not die; humbled and oppressed, they chafe under the yoke imposed upon them, preparing a renewal of the combat, and passing down from generation to generation a mournful heritage of hatred and revenge.”
He was right and all the bigwigs who dismissed his calls for peace as the ravings of a dreamer were wrong.
The 19 million people who died, give or take three million, testify to that. Not to mention the mournful heritage of the 70 million or so who died in the Second World War to avenge the First.
The decisions to be made by men like Hegseth, Trump, and Netanyahu are not easy ones. With the wisdom of centuries behind him, Pope Leo is proposing humane guidelines for achieving a just outcome.
Give peace a chance, the pope says. For God’s sake, listen to him.
