Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, pressed at a Pentagon briefing Friday, said the military has “every authority necessary” to wage the Iran war and waved off Pope Leo XIV’s criticism as the pope “doing his thing.”
- Pope Leo, speaking to reporters Thursday on his flight home from an Africa tour, urged peace talks, warned the fragile ceasefire is under strain near the Strait of Hormuz, and said many innocent Iranians are suffering.
- Vice President J. D. Vance told the pope to be careful on theology, and the U.S. bishops countered that Leo speaks as the Church’s pastor and that Catholic just-war teaching limits when force can be used.
- New polling split the picture, with a Democracy Institute survey finding most Catholics called Trump’s Jesus-style image wrong and rejected his ‘doctor’ explanation, while a Human Events piece highlighted Fox News polls showing his Catholic approval rebounded in April.
- The feud was fueled by Trump’s AI image that appeared to depict him as Jesus, which he deleted after backlash; former Vice President Mike Pence urged him to drop the fight and called the image offensive.