The pope rebukes American moral corruption
Friday Flashpoint: April 17, AD 2026
Welcome to Friday Flashpoint where I analyze and expose important historical and social developments impacting America in the world.
“We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow. Indifferent to the economic and social consequences they produce, which we all feel. There is an ever-increasing “globalization of indifference,” to borrow an expression dear to Pope Francis, who one year ago from this loggia addressed his final words to the world, reminding us: “What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of the world!”— Pope Leo XIV Easter Message 2026
Israel’s ceasefire with Lebanon and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran are major world events. So is the South Korean president’s pointed criticism of Israel. He compared the country to imperial Japan—a reference to Japan’s obsession with strategic buffer zones. Japan once conquered Korea to establish protection against European colonizers; Koreans still remember their oppression. Comparing Israel to Japan is the harshest possible criticism from Seoul; it is like the Irish accusing another country of being like the English.
The bigger news is the escalating attacks by the American administration on Pope Leo XIV, the first American to serve as bishop of Rome. Pope Leo comes from a foundationally Protestant country. Although Pope Benedict XVI was German, Germany has a long Catholic history where the two branches of the faith have had parity for years. Leo understands the distinction between religion and the state in America, and he has not crossed that line. He has instead been exceptionally clear on morality and Christian teaching.
In his Palm Sunday Homily he said that:
Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood” (Isaiah 1:15)
This provoked rage from the American president and his supporters.
The pope quoted Isaiah 1:15. The book’s first chapter describes the Kingdom of Judah in rebellion against God. Those who attack the pope by arguing he was out of step with the tradition of “just war” argue from ignorance or incompetence. Neither is excusable if you plan to attack the Roman pontiff.
The Book of Isaiah begins with a vision received by “Isaiah, son of Amoz.” In it, God lists specific moral complaints against the kings and people of Judah. He charges them with corruption and compares them unfavorably to cattle. While Pope Leo quoted verse 15, the following verses explicitly list how to reverse God’s judgment:
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Because they are not listening, God offers a brutal indictment in verse 23:
Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.
Judah is denounced for oppression, injustice, and “cozying up” to criminals. Because they are “full of blood”—driven by violence—God says:“Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.”
In context Pope Leo is clearly saying more than our religiously uninformed media understood. He selected a verse from an anti-corruption passage to argue that God will not hear the prayers of corrupt leaders who wage war in his name. Why would he? The attacks on the pope by US administration supporters center on the idea that their prayers would not be heard because of their waging of war and they responded by citing wars were people did invoke God in the past such as the Crusades, and therefore missed the point. The reason the prayers would not be heard is because of the corruption and an unjust war is a manifestation of the corruption. This is a serious implication from the head of the world’s largest religious sect, numbering 1.4 billion. Leo quoted from Isaiah chapter one, and the context of that chapter is unambiguous.
The moral challenge from Rome to America, and the political challenge from the administration to Republican Catholics, puts them in a tough spot. They will have to choose. 127 years later, American Catholics must again answer Pope Leo XIII’s challenge “What is Americanism?”
“From the foregoing it is manifest, beloved son, that we are not able to give approval to those views which, in their collective sense, are called by some “Americanism.” But if by this name are to be understood certain endowments of mind which belong to the American people, just as other characteristics belong to various other nations, and if, moreover, by it is designated your political condition and the laws and customs by which you are governed, there is no reason to take exception to the name. But if this is to be so understood that the doctrines which have been adverted to above are not only indicated, but exalted, there can be no manner of doubt that our venerable brethren, the bishops of America, would be the first to repudiate and condemn it as being most injurious to themselves and to their country. For it would give rise to the suspicion that there are among you some who conceive and would have the Church in America to be different from what it is in the rest of the world.” —Pope Leo XIII, 1899, Concerning New Opinions, Virtue, Nature and Grace, With Regard to Americanism
In 1899, Leo XIII wrote that the Church could not approve of “Americanism” if the term meant that the order, obedience, and discipline of the Church in America should be different from that of the Church in the rest of the world. If the vice-president or others wish to claim that the new Pope Leo XIV is wrong to criticize their conduct and rhetoric regarding the war on Iran, they must first understand his message.
As Jesus walks the Way of the Cross, we place ourselves behind him, following in his footsteps. As we walk with him, we contemplate his passion for the sake of humanity, his broken heart, and his life as a gift of love.
We turn our gaze to Jesus, who reveals himself as King of Peace, even as war looms around him. He remains steadfast in meekness, while others are stirring up violence. He offers himself to embrace humanity, even as others raise swords and clubs. He is the light of the world, though darkness is about to engulf the earth. He came to bring life, even as plans unfold to condemn him to death.
As King of Peace, Jesus’ desire is to bring the world into the Father’s arms, tearing down every barrier that separates us from God and from our neighbor, for “He is our peace” (Eph 2:14).
As King of Peace, Jesus enters into Jerusalem not upon a horse, but upon a donkey, fulfilling the ancient prophecy that calls for rejoicing at the arrival of the Messiah: “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations” (Zech 9:9–10).
As King of Peace, when one of his disciples drew his sword to defend him and struck the high priest’s servant, Jesus immediately stopped him, saying: “Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Mt 26:52).
As King of Peace, while he was burdened with our sufferings and pierced for our sins, Jesus “did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent” (Is 53:7). He did not arm himself, or defend himself, or fight any war. He revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence. Rather than saving himself, he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, embracing every cross borne in every time and place throughout human history.
Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood” (Is 1:15).
As we set our gaze upon him who was crucified for us, we can see a crucified humanity. In his wounds, we see the hurts of so many women and men today. In his last cry to the Father, we hear the weeping of those who are crushed, who have no hope, who are sick and who are alone. Above all, we hear the painful groans of all those who are oppressed by violence and are victims of war.
Christ, King of Peace, cries out again from his cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons! Remember that you are brothers and sisters!
In the words of the Servant of God, Bishop Tonino Bello, I would like to entrust this cry to Mary Most Holy, who stands beneath the cross of her Son and weeps also at the feet of those who are crucified today:
“Holy Mary, woman of the third day, grant us the certainty that, in spite of all, death will no longer hold sway over us; that the injustices of peoples are numbered; that the flashes of war are fading into the twilight; that the sufferings of the poor are breathing their last. And grant, finally, that the tears of all the victims of violence and pain will soon be dried up like frost beneath the spring sun” (Maria, donna dei nostri giorni). —PALM SUNDAY, HOMILY OF POPE LEO XIV, Sunday, 29 March 2026
