A speech John F. Kennedy gave when he was running for president in 1960 is instructive for assessing how President Donald Trump has dealt with Pope Leo XIV’s criticism.
On Friday, Pope Leo posted on social media, “God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.”
God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient…
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) April 10, 2026
So his stance is apparently that all war is evil, and the U.S. and Israel should end their military campaign against Iran, and allow the Islamic Republic to do whatever it feels inclined to do in the region, whether it’s promoting and funding terrorism or developing nuclear weapons.
That is not a biblical worldview. King Solomon wrote there is “a time for war, and a time for peace.” For centuries, Christian theologians have stood behind just war doctrine. Restated simply: as individuals have a right to defend themselves and others from unjust attacks, biblically, so do nations.
As Vice President J.D. Vance, who is Roman Catholic, pointed out at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia on Tuesday night, “How can you say that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps and liberated those innocent people?”
🚨 JUST NOW — JD VANCE on POPE LEO: “He said that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword…how can you say that? [Was] God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis?”
“Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps and… pic.twitter.com/w9YZMFwRKe
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 14, 2026
Pope Leo sees dialogue with the Iran regime as the alternative to war. Where has he been since 1979, when the Islamic radicals took over Iran, seized 53 Americans, and held them hostage for over 400 days? Not to mention backing the Beirut bombing in 1983 that killed over 241 U.S. Marines, and the thousands of other killings and maimings of U.S. service members through proxies over the years.
As much as we may have wanted peace with Iran, they’ve been at war with us, and it takes two willing sides for conflict to end.
Trump pointed out in a Tuesday social media post, “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”
So, under just war doctrine, the U.S. and Israel acted both in defense of themselves and others in targeting Iran.
If the Pope is concerned about innocents dying, targeting Iran’s ability to build a bomb and taking out its top leadership may be the best way to prevent far greater bloodshed. That’s the judgment call the president has made.
𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗱 𝗝. 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝟭𝟭:𝟯𝟰 𝗣𝗠 𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝟬𝟰.𝟭𝟰.𝟮𝟲
Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is…
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 15, 2026
Last fall, Pope Leo also criticized the Trump administration for its “inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States.”
Regarding immigration law enforcement and the war in Iran, Trump has not backed down, nor should he, based on the Pope’s views.
When Kennedy was running for president in 1960, he accepted the invitation of the Greater Houston Ministerial Association to address the issue of his Roman Catholic faith — and whether a pontiff or church leader might have undue influence on him, or even dictate U.S. policy, should he become president.
He began his remarks by arguing that his faith certainly should not be the central issue of the campaign, but rather that he would like to focus on the international and domestic challenges of the day, and how he proposed to address them.
“But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured — perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again — not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me — but what kind of America I believe in,” he said.
“I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish — where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source — where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials — and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all,” Kennedy continued.
Kennedy also emphasized to the Protestant ministers in attendance, “I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters — and the church does not speak for me.”
He pledged, “Whatever issue may come before me as President — on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling, or any other subject — I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.”
Kennedy concluded by saying that if he were elected president, he would take the oath swearing without reservation with his hand on the Bible to “faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution… so help me God.”
Trump has decided it is in the national interest of the United States to counter the rogue regime in Iran militarily.
Pope Leo wants a world at peace, which is nice and good, but unfortunately, due to the presence of evil among humanity, peace often only comes at the other end of war.
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