Pope Leo XIV leads a mass for Palm Sunday at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on March 29, 2026.Massimo Valicchia/AP
On Sunday, Pope Leo said that God refuses the prayers of leaders who have “hands full of blood,” in what appeared to be a direct rebuke to many Trump administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who have invoked religious rhetoric to justify their war with Iran.
“This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Leo said to thousands of people attending his Palm Sunday mass at St. Peter’s Square. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
The pope has made repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire in Iran and, last Monday, said military airstrikes should be banned.
“Thousands of innocent people have been killed, and many others have been forced to abandon their homes,” Leo said earlier this month. “I renew my prayerful closeness to all those who have lost their loved ones in the attacks that have struck schools, hospitals, and residential areas.”
While the pope’s remarks have not identified anyone specific, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been at the forefront of mingling his Christian faith with his prosecution of the Iran war. On Wednesday, Hegseth prayed at the Pentagon in front of military and civilian workers for US troops to deliver “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,” he continued.
Hegseth has been open about his support for a Christian crusade. As my colleague Kiera Butler pointed out when Donald Trump nominated him for secretary of defense in November 2024, Hegseth published a book in 2020 titled American Crusade, which discussed the destruction of Muslim holy sites to reclaim them for Christianity.
Kiera also highlighted Hegseth’s tattoos, including a Jerusalem cross on his chest, which Matthew Taylor, a religion scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, told her is a reference to the Christian crusades. According to Taylor, another Hegseth tattoo of the words “Deus Vult”—Latin for “God wills it”—signifies that “God mandated Crusaders’ violence.”
During his tenure, Hegseth has explicitly injected religion into the Pentagon. According to the Washington Post, he hosts monthly evangelical worship services every month at the Pentagon and has invited clergy members from his Christian denomination to preach at these events.
