Jonathan Freedland is right: in a contest between a former property developer turned politician and the Vicar of Christ, there is only ever going to be one winner (It’s no surprise Trump has met his match in Pope Leo – the US president represents the polar opposite of Christianity, 24 April). The present pope is an intelligent and sophisticated Augustinian, well versed in dealing with subtle and complex disputes within the Catholic church. Crude attacks from Donald Trump and JD Vance hold no terrors. The president’s greetings-card picture of himself as a Christ-like healer was childish and self-defeating, while the vice-president’s pointed gift of volumes of Saint Augustine’s writings, as if the pontiff were unfamiliar with their contents, was simply crass.
Nevertheless, not all papal pronouncements are infallible. Pope Leo did open himself to legitimate criticism when he declared in his Palm Sunday address: “He [Jesus] does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” In the context of the Iran conflict, we know what he meant, but the bald statement invites misunderstanding. It appears at odds with the concept of a just war – the conditions for which are laid out in the catechism of the Catholic church (paragraph 2309). The pope’s remark would hardly apply to the petitions of those who waged war against the Nazis and who liberated the death camps.
Francis Bown
London
