Pope Leo has criticised leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” in unusually forceful comments during a visit to Cameroon.

The pontiff blasted those he said had manipulated “the very name of God” for their own gain, while touring a region ravaged by a deadly insurgency.

The remarks come just days after a high-profile spat with US President Donald Trump, who posted a lengthy attack on the Pope, a vocal critic of the US-Israeli military operation in Iran.

The Pope had voiced his concern about Trump’s threat that “a whole civilisation will die” if Iran did not agree to US demands to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Leo, who last year became the first US-born Pope, has previously also questioned the Trump administration’s approach to immigration.

“Leo should get his act together as Pope,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at the time.

The Pope told reporters at the start of his Africa tour that he did not want to get into a debate with Trump but would continue to promote peace.

Speaking in Cameroon, the Pope criticised leaders who “turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found”.

“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” he said on Thursday.

The Pope also condemned “an endless cycle of destabilisation and death” in a “bloodstained” region of Cameroon that has been gripped by insurgency for nearly a decade.

“Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilisation and death,” he told those gathered at a cathedral in the north-western city of Bamenda - the centre of the violence that has left at least 6,000 people dead and displaced many more.

“Peace is not something we must invent: it is something we must embrace by accepting our neighbour as a brother and as our sister,” the Pope said.

Separatist insurgents in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions have been fighting the predominantly Francophone government since 2017.

Following Leo’s address, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said that she stood with the Pope in his “courageous call for a kingdom of peace”.

The war in Iran has increasingly placed the Pope and the Trump administration at odds.

Soon after the first US and Israeli attacks on Iran, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recited a highly controversial prayer at a Pentagon worship service that talked of “overwhelming violence” and “justice executed swiftly and without remorse”.

Then, during a Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter’s Square, the Pope said the conflict between Iran, Israel and the US was “atrocious” and that Jesus could not be used to justify war.

“This is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” he told tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in Vatican City.

“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

The pontiff also quoted the Bible passage Isaiah 1:15: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”

Earlier this week, Trump launched a scathing attack on the Pope on social media, in which he described the leader of the Catholic Church as “WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy” while portraying himself as a Jesus-like figure.

He later doubled-down on his criticism and refused to apologise - but deleted the AI-generated image of himself.

Asked about the US president’s remarks as he arrived in Algiers, the Pope said he had “no fear” of the Trump administration and that he would continue to speak out against war.

The Catholic leader’s wide-ranging Africa tour will include stops in 11 cities across four countries. It is his second major foreign visit since being elected to the papacy last year, and reflects the importance of Catholicism in Africa.

More than a fifth of the world’s Catholics - some 288 million people - live in Africa, according to figures from 2024.

Source: BBC

--Agencies