Pope Leo Urges "Responsibility and Reason" As Israel-Iran Conflict Escalates
The pontiff said keeping the world "free from the nuclear threat" will require "sincere dialogue."
This story has been updated.
By Gary Gately
Pope Leo XIV urged Israel and Iran on Saturday to act with “responsibility and reason” and seek peace through dialogue as the two arch-rivals unleashed renewed attacks on each other, raising fears of a wider conflict that could draw in the U.S. and other global powers.
“The situation in Iran and Israel has seriously deteriorated,” Pope Leo said during an audience in St. Peter’s Basilica. “At such a delicate moment, I would like to renew my strong appeal to responsibility and reason.”
Speaking from a prepared text, the first American pope said all countries have a duty “to support the cause of peace, initiating paths of reconciliation and promoting solutions that guarantee security and dignity for all.”
Leo specifically referred to “the commitment to build a world that is safer and free from the nuclear threat,” which he said must be pursued not through force, but “respectful encounter and sincere dialogue, in order to build lasting peace, founded on justice, fraternity and the common good.”
“No one should ever threaten the existence of the other,” the 69-year-old pontiff said at the end of a Jubilee Year audience. “It is the duty of all countries to support the cause of peace, initiating paths of reconciliation and promoting solutions that guarantee security and dignity for all.”
Israel said it launched “preemptive” strikes on Iran, which began in the pre-dawn hours Friday, targeting Tehran’s nuclear sites and military leadership. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that Iran is close to developing a nuclear weapon, posing a threat to Israel’s “very survival.” But Iran, which has repeatedly threatened to annihilate Israel, insists its nuclear program is purely peaceful.
Iran has supplied Islamist militant group Hamas with rockets, weapons technology and training. The Israel-Hamas war erupted after Hamas’ October 7 cross-border attack killed about 1,200 Israelis and militants seized about 250 hostages, where dozens remain captive.
Iran’s UN ambassador said Israeli strikes killed 78 people, most of them civilians, and injured more than 300 on Friday. Scores other others were killed Saturday, including 60 who died when a missile destroyed apartments. Three top generals, a senior government official and two scientists also among those killed, Iranian state media and officials reported Saturday.
Iran’s retaliatory strikes killed three people and injured dozens more in Israel, Israeli emergency services organization Magen David Adom said
Israel’s initial strikes came a day after Iran said it had built and activated a third nuclear enrichment facility immediately following the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency’s censuring Iran for violating a global nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
At an emergency UN Security Council session Friday, Rafael Grossi, the nuclear watchdog agency’s director general, said nuclear sites must never be targeted.
“Such attacks have serious implications for nuclear security, nuclear safety and safeguards, as well as regional and international peace and security,” Grossi said. “It is clear that the only sustainable path forward for Iran, for Israel, the entire region and the international community is one grounded in dialogue and diplomacy to ensure peace, stability and cooperation.”
Roberto Cetera, a Middle East correspondent for the Holy See’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, delivered an ominous warning in a piece posted Saturday on Vatican News: ”The risk that the piecemeal world war; denounced by Pope Francis could evolve into a full-scale global conflict has rarely felt more real…. The critical question now is whether Israel’s military action will contain the threat or dangerously widen the conflict, potentially beyond the region.”
The conflict, Cetera wrote, “again reveals the failure of leaderships, unable or unwilling to pursue diplomacy.” He quoted Father Francesco Patton of the Order of Friars Minor in Jerusalem, warning in his homily Friday that “such leaders are consumed by a ‘belligerent lust,’ incapable of seeking solutions through any means other than war.”
Cerera suggested that Netanyahu timed the strikes to divert global attention from the war in Gaza, where Israel’s military campaign has triggered unprecedented international condemnation, even among traditional allies. The Palestinian death toll in the 20-month war has surpassed 55,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between military and civilian casualties. And Israel’s blockade has left most of the population of more than 2 million Palestinians to the brink of famine, according to the UN and aid workers.
In several public appearances since becoming leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, including in his first Sunday message on May 11, Leo has called for Israel to allow aid to flow into Gaza and for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all Israeli hostages held by the militant Islamist group Hamas. But he has avoided the sort of harsh language Pope Francis had employed in repeatedly criticizing Israel for its military offensive and blockade.
During a September 2024 press conference aboard the papal plane heading back to the Vatican from Belgium, for example, Francis denounced Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon as “immoral” and disproportionate and said they went beyond the rules of war. And in November 2024, the Vatican released excerpts of a forthcoming book in which Francis said allegations that Israel has committed “genocide” in Gaza should be “carefully investigated.”
Francis’ criticisms of Israel drew outrage from many Jewish leaders and officials in Israel’s government, who accused him of antisemitism and distorting the nation’s military campaign in Gaza.
Still, Leo’s emphasis on dialogue between warring countries stands in sharp contrast to President Donald J. Trump’s oft-stated views that U.S. military might ensures peace.
In a social media post after midnight Sunday, Trump wrote: “The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight. If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”
On Saturday, the president said in a social media post that he had spoken by telephone with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Saturday and that the two leaders agreed that the Israel-Iran war “should end.”
Meanwhile, Axios, quoting two unnamed Israel officials, reported Saturday that Israel has asked the Trump administration over the past 48 hours to join the war to help eliminate Iran’s nuclear program.
The news website reported that an Israeli official claimed the U.S. might join the Israeli military campaign and that Trump had even suggested he would do so, if necessary, in a recent conversation with Netanyahu, but a White House official denied that. Another U.S. official confirmed Saturday that Israel has urged the U.S. to join Israel in its war against Iran but said the administration is not considering doing so.
For his part, Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, archbishop of Tehran–Ispahan of the Latins, lamented that Israel and Iraq show no signs of letting up in their military strikes “instead of committing to dialogue around the negotiating table.”
“The much-feared escalation seems to be materializing,” Cardinal Mathieu told AsiaNews.
“We pray that peace through dialogue based on a consensus will prevail,” he said. “May the Holy Spirit guide this process.”
Mathieu said the 22,000 Catholics in Iran, a nation with a population of over 84 million, “are full of hope.” He pointed to a “strong bond” with Pope Francis and expressed confidence that his successor, Pope Leo, would continue its ongoing dialogue with Iran.
The cardinal recalled Francis' commitment to interreligious dialogue, especially his meeting with Shiite leaders from Qom, and stressed the need for the Church to continue building bridges among diverse religions and cultures.
The Holy See maintains full diplomatic relations with both Iran and Israel and has historically tried to preserve channels of dialogue with both nations, even during wars.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops reminded the faithful of the “urgent need to pray for peace in the Mideast, home to many Latin Rite Catholic Churches.
“During this month — dedicated in the Latin Church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — we have a unique opportunity to seek the Lord’s mercy, healing, and peace for our divided world,” the bishops said in a statement Friday. “Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus focuses our attention on the Lord’s inexhaustible love for humanity, and His desire that all be saved.”
The bishops recommended that parishes, communities of consecrated and apostolic life, families, movements and associations, and individuals to pray novenas to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, attend Eucharistic Adoration, fast, perform corporal works of mercy and donate to charities that aid people in the Mideast.
And Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila said in a Friday post on X (formery Twitter): “Let us pray ever more fervently for peace in the Middle East! Lord, grant us the grace to be peacemakers, respecting the dignity of every human being from conception to natural death. Only through you Lord will true peace be reached. Amen.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued no statements on the conflict and did not respond to a request for comment.
Reverend Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, a coalition of more than 350 Christian churches across the world, strongly condemned Israel’s attacks on Iran.
“Such aggression endangers the entire Middle East region, reignites cycles of violence, and risks triggering a catastrophic war with global implications,” Pillay said in a statement. “It challenges all efforts made through diplomacy and dialogue, and gravely undermines the pursuit of peace, justice, and human dignity.”
Pillay said “the only path to real and lasting security lies in the commitment to international law, mutual respect, and negotiated solutions.”
“The peoples of the Middle East have suffered enough,” he added. “We call upon the international community to hold accountable those who threaten peace, and to act urgently to prevent further escalation. The WCC remains steadfast in its call for justice, restraint, and dialogue as the only moral and sustainable way forward.”