Pope Leo XIV sought on Saturday to downplay the uproar over his row with US President Donald Trump, saying reports of comments he has made so far during his African tour “have not been accurate in every respect.”
Speaking to reporters in English during his flight to Angola, the third stop on his 10-day African tour, the first American pope of the Vatican said that comments he made two days earlier in Cameroon, in which he said the world was being “destroyed by a handful of tyrants,” were not directed at Trump.
Pope Leo said that the speech “was prepared two weeks ago, before the president commented on me and on the message of peace that I am calling for.”
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who criticized the Pope's remarks last week, welcomed the latest comments.
Vance wrote on the X platform: “I am grateful to Pope Leo for these words. While the media constantly fuels conflict—and yes, there have been and will be real disagreements—the reality is often more complex.”
As Pope Leo prepared to begin his tour last Sunday, Trump described him as “weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy” in a post on TruthSocial. Trump also shared an AI-generated image of himself resembling Jesus Christ , drawing widespread criticism even from some of his usual religious supporters. The post was removed Monday morning.
Trump was apparently responding to Liu's growing criticism in recent weeks of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Pope Leo told Reuters on Monday that he would continue to speak out about the war, and Trump repeated his criticisms on Tuesday.
The Pope on Thursday criticized leaders who spend billions on wars, saying the world is being “destroyed by a handful of tyrants,” but again did not mention Trump directly.
The Pope said on Saturday: “In fact, it seemed as if I was trying to get into an argument with the President, and I am not interested in that at all.”
Leo, who was born in Chicago, USA, maintained a relatively reserved stance towards the Pope during the first ten months of his tenure, but he displayed a new and clear style in his statements during his tour of Africa, where he strongly condemned wars and inequality and criticized leaders around the world.
His tour of Africa is one of the most complex tours organized for a Pope in decades, as he is scheduled to travel nearly 18,000 kilometers via 18 flights to 11 cities and towns in four countries.
Tags:
america
