03/29/2026
Pope Leo, on the war in Iran:
As of March 2026, Pope Leo XIV has strongly condemned the ongoing war in Iran and the broader Middle East, calling it an "atrocious conflict" and an "immoral" assault. He demanded an immediate ceasefire, stating that God rejects the prayers of leaders who initiate war and have "hands full of blood".
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"Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy... We ask these things in bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ."
That's not a line from a medieval crusader's journal. That's the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, praying aloud at a taxpayer-funded evangelical Christian worship service inside the Pentagon on Wednesday -- livestreamed on the building's internal TV network -- while more than 50,000 American troops are deployed across the Middle East in an active and expanding war against Muslim-majority Iran.
Hegseth went on, reading from the Book of Psalms: "I pursued my enemies and overtook them. I did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise." He then recited what he said was a prayer first delivered by a military chaplain to troops ahead of the January operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro: "Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation." He prayed for God to "break the teeth of the ungodly" and for "wicked souls" to be "delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them."
Today, at St. Peter's Square for Palm Sunday mass, Pope Leo XIV delivered what amounted to a direct rebuke of Hegseth and the Trump administration's weaponization of faith, stating that God refuses the prayers of leaders who have "hands full of blood." "This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war," Leo continued. "He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them."
The leader of 1.4 billion Catholics, speaking to the world, essentially told the U.S. Secretary of Defense that God isn't hearing his prayers -- He's rejecting them. Leo has made repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire in Iran and, earlier this month, called for a ban on military airstrikes altogether, saying: "Thousands of innocent people have been killed, and many others have been forced to abandon their homes."
The pope's words land in the middle of a burgeoning, directionless war whose aims and objectives shift on a near-daily basis. The Trump administration has offered no clear timeline, no coherent endgame, and no exit strategy. The stated goals have ballooned from three to four to five in a single month, swinging from destroying Iran's missiles to regime change to "world peace" depending on who is talking and what day it is. Even Trump's own intelligence director has publicly contradicted the administration's justifications.
And while Trump has claimed the U.S. may soon be "winding down" the operation, the Pentagon is doing the opposite -- surging forces on top of the roughly 50,000 troops already stationed across the Middle East. More than 3,500 Marines arrived this week aboard the USS Tripoli. Thousands of 82nd Airborne paratroopers are deploying from Fort Bragg. And the Pentagon is weighing sending up to 10,000 additional ground forces -- which would push the total U.S. military presence in the region past 67,000 -- while actively planning potential operations on Iranian soil.
Thirteen American service members are dead. Nearly 300 more have been wounded. Nearly 2,000 Iranians have been killed, including over 1,300 civilians. Billions of taxpayer dollars squandered. And the man overseeing all of it -- with no senior military command experience, no strategy, and no accountability -- is using his position to cast it as a holy war.
Hegseth is without question the least qualified Defense Secretary in modern history -- a former Fox News host with no senior military command experience, no experience managing large organizations, and no previous government service at any level. But what makes him dangerous isn't just his incompetence. It's his ideology.
Hegseth belongs to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a conservative denomination co-founded by self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson -- the Idaho pastor who has called the 19th Amendment "a bad idea," whose followers describe women's suffrage as "a rebellion against God," and who co-authored a pamphlet arguing that American slavery was "far more benign" than abolitionists claimed. Wilson calls himself a "paleo-Confederate" and describes his politics as "slightly to the right" of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart -- a slaveholder who took up arms against his own country to preserve slavery.
Last month, Hegseth gave Wilson a Pentagon podium. Wilson stood in an auditorium full of military personnel -- some in uniform -- and preached that Jesus "purchased all the nations of men" with his blood, framing the prayer meeting as the potential start of a national transformation that would bring America under Christian governance. When CNN aired a segment featuring Wilson's pastors arguing against women's right to vote, Hegseth didn't distance himself. He reposted the video with the caption: "All of Christ for All of Life."
These aren't isolated acts of personal devotion. Hegseth launched monthly Christian worship services at the Pentagon last May -- held during the workday, in the Pentagon auditorium, broadcast on the building's internal TV network, with invitations sent from the Secretary's office bearing the Department of Defense seal. CREC pastors have appeared at his services at least three times.
This week, he announced that military chaplains will no longer wear their rank insignia and will instead display symbols of their religious affiliation. He scrapped the Army's Spiritual Fitness guide because, he said, it was too focused on "self-care" rather than "truth." He abolished the 74-year-old Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services over what he called a "divisive feminist agenda." He systematically purged women -- far more qualified than himself -- from the highest levels of military leadership.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the Defense Department this week for refusing to turn over public records about the services -- their cost, their guest lists, and any complaints received from employees. "Even if these prayer services are presented as voluntary, there is pressure on federal employees to attend in order to appease their bosses," the organization wrote, "especially since these services occur amidst the Trump administration's campaign to punish anyone who doesn't comply with its Christian Nationalist agenda."
The backlash from within the military has been sharp. The Washington Post reports that retired Army Major General Randy Manner, who has trained hundreds of interfaith military chaplains, has spoken with "dozens and dozens" of active-duty chaplains who say those who don't identify with Hegseth's brand of Christianity "are being marginalized." Some told him they've been excluded from staff meetings.
Retired Army Colonel Larry Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Colin Powell, told the Post that the American military had maintained a "remarkable ride of equanimity and fairness" with regard to religion -- "until now." He warned that Hegseth's actions are "totally violative of everything that transpired before it" and are fueling polarization within a military already on the precipice: "If you have something like another Jan. 6, now we're looking at a military that will start fighting itself."
Wilkerson is on the board of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which works to protect religious liberty and church-state separation in the military. Mikey Weinstein, president of the foundation, says since Trump returned to office, the foundation has been receiving a spike in military members calling for help, with hundreds coming in each month. An Air Force general told the Post that "it feels like decades worth of progress has been undone in 12 months."
There is an important line between personal faith and institutional imposition. Every president in modern history has understood it. General Patton ordered an interfaith prayer for troops in World War II. Donald Rumsfeld changed "Operation Infinite Justice" to "Operation Enduring Freedom" within a week of 9/11, specifically to avoid the appearance of a religious war. Admiral Mike Mullen kept Mass off his public schedule as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The Navy Chaplain Corps changed its motto from "Cooperation Without Compromise" to "Called to Serve All."
Hegseth has obliterated that line. He isn't just praying privately. He's using the most powerful military apparatus on Earth to broadcast a specific strain of evangelical Christianity -- during an active war against a Muslim-majority nation -- from the podium of the Pentagon. He's framing American military violence as divinely ordained, enemies as "wicked souls" destined for "eternal damnation," and the entire enterprise as a Christian crusade. He literally wrote a book called "American Crusade."
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, put it bluntly: "The abuse and manipulation of God's name to justify this and any other war is the gravest sin we can commit at this time. War is first and foremost political and has very material interests, like most wars. We must do everything we can to leave no room for this pseudo-religious language, which speaks not of God, but of ourselves."
The Founders had a word for government that serves one religion above all others. They called it tyranny. And they wrote the First Amendment to prevent exactly what is happening right now inside the Pentagon.
A senior Army civilian who has worked in the Pentagon for decades put it as plainly as anyone could. The situation, this person told the Washington Post, is "terrifying." If troops are trained to believe that "God is on our side," the person said, "what precludes us from doing anything we want to win? The strength of our military is our people, and their sense of belonging to their unit and their service."
That's what Hegseth is destroying. Not just norms. Not just the separation of church and state. The thing that actually holds a military together -- the belief that the person next to you belongs there regardless of what they pray to, or whether they pray at all.
But it's bigger than unit cohesion. When the U.S. Secretary of Defense stands at a podium inside the Pentagon and prays for "overwhelming violence" in the name of Jesus Christ -- while commanding a war against a Muslim-majority nation, while tens of thousands of troops deploy into a region where 1.8 billion Muslims are watching -- he isn't just alienating the non-Christians in his own ranks. He's telling the world this is a crusade. He's handing enemy propagandists exactly the narrative they need. He's confirming the worst fears of every Muslim-majority country the U.S. needs as an ally or partner. He's turning American foreign policy into a sectarian weapon.
Hegseth isn't strengthening the force. He's fracturing it from within and branding it as a holy army from without. One worship service, one purge, one war at a time.
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--> To back the legal fight to force the Pentagon to disclose records about Hegseth's taxpayer-funded prayer services, support Americans United for Separation of Church and State at https://www.au.org
--> To help service members experiencing religious coercion in the military through a confidential reporting channel, visit the Military Religious Freedom Foundation at https://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org
--> To read about how Hegseth is destroying decades of norms about religion and the U.S. military, and threatening troop cohension and morale, visit https://wapo.st/4sBjGeD
--> To learn more about Hegseth's extremist pastor, Doug Wilson, the new Sons of Patriarchy podcast explores how biblical patriarchy, Christian nationalism, and theologies of authority and submission have fueled abuse in churches, schools, and families -- with a particular focus on the movement centered around Wilson at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sons-of-patriarchy/id1772141068
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For powerful books for tweens and teens about girls living in real-life oppressive societies throughout history -- including religious autocracies -- visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426
For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
For books for young readers that honor the service of women in the military, visit our blog post "The Price of Peace: A Mighty Girl Recognizes Veterans" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12356
For a children's book that gives groundbreaking women in the military, past and present, the respect they deserve, we highly recommend "Heroism Begins With Her: Inspiring Stories of Bold, Brave, and Gutsy Women in the U.S. Military" for ages 9 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/heroism-begins-with-her
To read more about extremist Doug Wilson speaking at the Pentagon this month, visit https://wapo.st/4aX8vXf
Thanks to KWTX News 10 for sharing this image!
