US troops fighting for Jesus, says Hegseth; Pope Leo XIV disagrees

By Motoko Rich

 

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, has asked the American people to pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory in the West Asia “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

 

Pope Leo XIV, the first US-born pontiff, has a starkly different take on what should be done in Jesus’s name. In a homily during a Mass on Thursday morning before Easter, the pope said that the Christian mission has often been “distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.”

 

Since the US and Israel began bombing Iran in late February, the pope has consistently called for an end to the violence and a return to dialogue to resolve the conflict. But without naming Hegseth, he has also pointed out the ways in which Christianity has been marshaled for purposes that the pope says do not align with Catholic teaching.

 

 

“We tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared,” the pope said in a homily during a Holy Thursday rite at the Basilica of St John Lateran, the cathedral of the bishop of Rome. “God has given us an example — not of how to dominate, but of how to liberate; not of how to destroy life, but of how to give it.”

 

Throughout his first year as pontiff, Leo has been careful not to wade into US politics and has avoided direct confrontation with the White House.

 

He has used his influence through proxies, such as when he encouraged US bishops to strongly support immigrants last year as President Trump escalated his deportation campaign.

 

Pope Leo has said he has not spoken directly to Mr. Trump about the war. But he talked Friday morning by telephone with Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, and reiterated the importance of dialogue and ending the conflicts to secure a “just and lasting peace” in the West Asia, according to a Vatican statement.