Pope Leo XIV calls Trump's Iran threats 'unacceptable,' urges peace

Tuesday’s threats from President Donald Trump to destroy “a whole civilization” should Iran fail to meet his deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz have drawn an uncommon rebuke from the leader of the Catholic Church, who calls Trump’s remarks “unacceptable.”

The response from Pope Leo XIV, who oversees the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, marks a rarity: Popes rarely respond directly to a world leader. Recent weeks, however, have seen the American-born pontiff voice increasing disapproval of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

“Today, as we all know, there was this threat against the entire people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable,” Pope Leo said while addressing ‌journalists ⁠outside his residence Tuesday in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. “There are certainly issues here of international law, but even more than that, it is a moral question for the good of the (world’s) people.”

The president’s harsh words were delivered in an expletive-laden post Tuesday morning on Truth Social, where he wrote that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

Trump’s shocking threats to obliterate Iranian infrastructure has drawn bipartisan backlash in the U.S., as well as from religious leaders. In Michigan, Muslim leaders denounced the president’s message as “a dangerous escalation that undermines both international stability and the moral fabric of public discourse” while Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called on Trump to “step back from the precipice of war.”

“The threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified,” Coakley said. “There are other ways to resolve conflict between peoples.”

In his April 7 remarks, the pope called Trump’s threats to blow up Iranian bridges and power plants “against international law” and urged Catholics around the world to voice their objections to political leaders and encourage them to find ways to quash the growing regional conflict.

"People want peace," he said. "I would invite the citizens ​of all the ​countries involved to ⁠contact the authorities – political leaders, congressmen – to ask them to work for peace."

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said the threats “constitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide,” and added that Iran rejects any agreement that does not involve a long-term end to the conflict. Iran has vowed to retaliate against any U.S. military escalation with strikes on its Gulf neighbors' infrastructure.

With reporting by Reuters.