Greeted by jubilant crowds in Barcelona, ​​Pope Leo XIV says Christians cannot "promote war"

Arriving to the cheers of the crowd gathered around and inside the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, ​​Leo XIV affirmed on Wednesday June 10 that Christians could not consider themselves as such if they were for “the war”in a barely veiled reference to the administration of US President Donald Trump. “We cannot believe in Jesus and promote war”he declared in his homily delivered at the Sagrada Familia basilica, a century to the day after the death of its architect Antoni Gaudi, a fervent Catholic.

Pope Leo XIV blessed the tallest tower of the Sagrada Familia on Wednesday evening, after a short ceremony and a majestic mass. “We cannot believe in Jesus and abandon the one who suffers, the one who cries, the one who flees poverty”he continued in front of thousands of faithful, including the King of Spain Felipe VI and his wife, Queen Letizia, an indirect allusion to the migration issue.

Leo XIV’s criticism of Donald Trump is not new. At the end of May, the Pope judged the concept of “just war” defended in particular by the American administration in the context of the war against Iran, initiated by the United States and Israel. He judged that this “théorie” était “too often invoked to justify any war, subject to the right to self-defense in its strictest sense”. The American president had described the pope as “weak” face à la criminalité et “nul” in matters of foreign policy, to which Leo XIV replied that he had the “moral duty” to stand up against the war.