And How Many Divisions Has Pope Bob From Chicago?
Silly Pope, Trump's waiting two weeks to end a civilization now.
Pope Bob from Chicago on Tuesday condemned Donald Trump’s threat to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization,” pointing out that threatening genocide is immoral and not how grownups should conduct themselves. Speaking to reporters as he left his country house, Castel Gandolfo, Leo XIV said, “Today as we all know there was this threat against all the people of Iran. And this is truly unacceptable.”
The pope, leader of the faith to which Vice President JD Vance allegedly belongs, added, “There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more, it is a moral question concerning the good of the people as a whole, in its entirety.”
Pope Bob did not mention Trump or Vance by name, but suggested it might be a good idea for Americans to contact their elected leaders to remind them that an all-out attack on civilian power plants and bridges would kill innocent human beings. Like, maybe leaders could think about that before they start talking about destroying entire civilizations?
“I would like to invite everyone to think in their hearts of so many innocent children, so many totally innocent elderly people who would also be victims of this escalation,” he said. “I would like to invite everyone to pray, but also to seek ways to communicate. Perhaps with congressmen, with authorities, saying that we don’t want war, we want peace.”
Yes, that’s the Pope of Rome actually saying that thoughts and prayers are all well and good, but you also should call your representatives and let them know this isn’t acceptable. At this rate Pope Bob might be organizing a No Kings rally at the Vatican.
Excuse Me, Did You Threaten The Friggin’ Pope?
As Christopher Hale explains at the “Letters from Leo” newsletter (paywalled), there’s also a bit more context to this, beyond Pope Bob just seeing Trump’s threat of genocide and calling it exactly what it was. Back in January, Under Secretary of Defense/War Elbridge Colby
summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre — Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States — and delivered a lecture.
America, Colby and his colleagues told the cardinal, has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.
But that’s not all! One of Hegseth’s war monkeys at the meeting even “went so far as to invoke the Avignon Papacy, the period in the 1300s when the French Crown leveraged its military power to dominate the papal authority.”
Now, the story was broken at Bari Weiss’s “The Free Press,” but as far as we can tell from the summaries by Hale and at the Daily Beast, the unnamed US official apparently stopped short of coming right out and telling the cardinal, “Nice little world religion you got here, sure be a shame if we hadda hold a new conclave and get us a pope who’ll play ball.”
Hale has since added that he can independently confirm the meeting took place, and that “Many in the Vatican saw the Pentagon’s reference to an Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.” Yesterday really was a big day for medievalists on social media. And bonus points to this Minnesota smart-aleck on Bluesky:
Colby and the other Pentagon goons who tried to pressure Cardinal Pierre were unhappy with Leo’s “State of the World Address” in which the pope said, “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies.” That fell afoul of Trump’s declaration that the US runs the Western Hemisphere and can blow up any boats and kidnap any leaders it pleases.
The Free Press article also notes that the White House really really wanted Pope Bob to come and celebrate the 250th anniversary of when Trump founded America, but the pope declined because he disagrees with US foreign policy and Trump’s attempt at ethnic cleansing, and also didn’t want a US visit this year to be used as a big feather in Trump’s cap prior to the midterm elections.
As Hale notes, “Instead, on July 4, 2026, the first American pope will travel to Lampedusa, the Italian island where North African migrants wash ashore by the thousands. Robert Francis Prevost is too deliberate a man to have chosen that date by accident.”
How About We Not Destroy Any Civilizations, Including Our Own?
Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization even drew rebukes from MAGA dipshits like Alex Jones, who said Trump’s Cabinet should 25th Amendment him, and from Tucker Carlson, who said on his podcast that military leaders should reject any orders from the Mad King to wipe out Iranian civilians. “Now it’s time to say no, absolutely not, and say it directly to the president, no,” Carlson said, sounding like a common Mark Kelly. Trump, who once was besties with Carlson, insisted that Carlson is a “low IQ person that has absolutely no idea what’s going on. He calls me all the time; I don’t respond to his calls. I don’t deal with him. I like dealing with smart people, not fools.”
Trump has not yet called the Pope a low-IQ person, but the day is young.
In an odd case of bipartisan agreement, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined Alex Jones in calling for Trump to be removed by the 25th Amendment, not that his Cabinet or congressional Republicans have the spine to do it. She reiterated that call for Trump to be removed from office even after President Two Weeks backed off his threat Tuesday, arguing that Trump’s “statement changes nothing,” because you can’t just go calling for genocide and say you decided not to for now.
Ocasio-Cortez noted that even after backing off the immediate threat, Trump “is continuing to leverage that threat,” adding that there are plenty of reasons Trump should be removed from office right now, from his illegal war on Iran to his constant grifting. “All of these incidents, and plenty more, have clearly driven our country past the threshold for impeachment or invocation of the 25th amendment,” she wrote.
Pope Bob’s opposition to Trump’s pointless war against Iran and Israel’s attacks on southern Lebanon has grown increasingly anti-militant. In a sermon for Palm Sunday, Leo said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war,” underlining that by citing Isaiah 1:15: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen — your hands are full of blood.”
You don’t need to be a theologian to recognize that as a fairly direct rebuke to Secretary of Murder Pete Hegseth’s repeated invocations of God as a big supporter of “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
Hey, just as an aside, we’d like to suggest this would be a good week for high school English teachers — and maybe the Pope, if he’s inclined — to assign Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer,” which remains as good an answer to warmongers as there’s ever been. It’s always a good week to read that.
In his Easter message Sunday, Leo reiterated that Jesus is the “King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war.”
I’m decidedly an ex-Catholic, but as a worshiper at the Church Of Kurt Vonnegut Who’s Up in Heaven Now, I fully believe that the language of religion has value if it helps us give two shits for other human beings, and to take action with that in mind. So here’s the part of Pope Bob’s Easter homily that we should demand our leaders listen to.
As we set our gaze upon him who was crucified for us, we can see a crucified humanity. In his wounds, we see the hurts of so many women and men today. In his last cry to the Father, we hear the weeping of those who are crushed, who have no hope, who are sick and who are alone. Above all, we hear the painful groans of all those who are oppressed by violence and are victims of war.
Christ, King of Peace, cries out again from his cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons! Remember that you are brothers and sisters!
You don’t have to believe the godstuff for that to make sense.
[WaPo (gift link) / AP / Letters from Leo / The War Prayer / Pope Leo’s Easter Homily 2026 / Guardian]
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You can tell we've entered the new Dark Ages when petty feudal warlords are now threatening the Pope.
not that his Cabinet or congressional Republicans have the spine to do it.
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It's more than being spineless it's being complicit because they are getting everything they want and more. They are not looking to the future of the country but how they can keep their power and how much money they can make while watching people suffer for said power and money. They spew to the magats exactly what they want to hear to keep the hate fires burning so they can keep their jobs to keep hurting everyone and this country. They do not care about anything but themselves.
Please keep pissing off the pope it works well for Ds with elections.