Pope Leo XIV rejects claims that God justifies war in Palm Sunday Mass message in St. Peter’s Square

rome — Pope Leo XIV on Sunday rejected claims that God justifies war and prayed specifically for Christians in the Middle East during a Palm Sunday Mass before tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

As the US-Israeli war on Iran entered its second month and the ongoing Russian campaign in Ukraine, Leo devoted his Palm Sunday sermon to insisting that God is the “King of Peace” who rejects violence and comforts the oppressed.

“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, the King of Peace, who rejects war, and whom no one can use to justify war,” Liu said. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who fight, but rather rejects them.”

Leaders on all sides of the Iran war have used religion to justify their actions. American officials, especially Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, cited their Christian faith to portray the war as a Christian nation trying to defeat its enemies with military force.

The Russian Orthodox Church also justified the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “holy war” against the Western world, which it considers to have fallen into evil.

Palm Sunday marks Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem in the run-up to his crucifixion, which Christians celebrate on Good Friday, and his resurrection on Easter.

In a special blessing at the end of the Mass, Liu said he was praying especially for Christians in the Middle East who are “suffering from the consequences of a terrible conflict. In many cases, they cannot fully live the rituals of these holy days.”

Earlier Sunday, the Latin Patriarchate said that Jerusalem police prevented the senior leadership of the Catholic Church from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Patriarchate said this is the first time in centuries that church leaders have been prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday in the place where Christians believe Jesus was crucified.

Liu said that during Holy Week, Christians cannot forget how many people around the world suffer like Christ. “Their trials speak to everyone’s conscience. Let us lift up our prayers to the Prince of Peace so that he can support people wounded by war and open concrete paths to reconciliation and peace,” Liu said.

Holy Week commemorates the suffering of Pope Francis

When Holy Week opened last year, Pope Francis was still recovering in the Vatican after a five-week hospital stay with double pneumonia. He delegated liturgical celebrations to others, but gathered on Easter Sunday to greet the faithful from the portico of St. Peter’s Square. Even more poignant was that he then made what became the Popemobile’s final loop around the square.

Francis died the next morning, Easter, after suffering a stroke. His nurse, Massimiliano Strapetti, later told Vatican media that Francis told him: “Thank you for bringing me back to the square” to pay his final salute.

Liu is scheduled to preside over liturgical appointments this week and returns to tradition with a foot-washing ceremony on Holy Thursday to commemorate Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples.

During his 12-year papacy, Francis celebrated the famous Holy Thursday ritual by traveling to Rome-area prisons and refugee centers to wash the feet of society’s most marginal people. His goal was to drive home the ritual’s message of service and humility, and during his Holy Thursday sermons he often pondered “Why them and not me?”

Francis’ gesture has been hailed as tangible evidence of his belief that the church must go to the peripheries to find those most in need of God’s love and mercy. But some critics took umbrage at the annual trips, especially since Pope Francis also washed the feet of Muslims and people of other faiths.

Leo restores the tradition of washing feet in Holy Week

Leo, the first US-born pope in history, is bringing the tradition of foot washing on Holy Thursday back to the Cathedral of St. John Lateran, where popes have performed it for decades. The Vatican has not yet said who will participate, although Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II usually wash the feet of 12 priests.

On Friday, Liu is scheduled to preside over the Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum to commemorate Christ’s passion and crucifixion. Saturday comes late at night on the eve of Easter, when Leo will baptize new Catholics, followed a few hours later by Easter when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

Leo will celebrate Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square and then deliver an Easter blessing from the cathedral’s loggia.

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