On the 11th (local time), as the United States and Iran entered talks to end the war, Pope Leo XIV urged that the “madness of war” must stop. Leo XIV, the first American pope in history, has lately been issuing a series of ‘anti-war’ messages that are being interpreted as aimed at U.S. President Donald Trump.

According to AP, at a special prayer service at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Leo XIV appealed: “Stop. Now is the time for peace,” and “Sit not at tables where rearmament is planned, but at tables of dialogue and mediation.” He continued, “Enough of idolatry of self and of money! Enough of displays of power! Enough of war!”

Leo XIV said, “Even the holy name of God is being dragged into a discourse of death,” adding that we must pray against the “ever more unpredictable and aggressive delusions of omnipotence.” Although he did not mention the United States or President Trump by name, AP analyzed that the day’s message appeared to be directed at President Trump and U.S. officials who have justified the war on religious grounds.

Previously, President Trump said, “God is good, therefore He is on our side in the war.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has described the current war as “a war waged under God’s providence,” and “a holy war waged in the name of Jesus Christ,” among other phrases.

Leo XIV had refrained from public criticism in the early stages of the U.S.-Iran war, which began with U.S. and Israeli attacks, but lately he has raised the tone of his remarks. The day before, he also wrote on X, “God does not bless any war,” stating that “disciples of Christ, the Prince of Peace, do not side with those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.” He also sharply condemned President Trump’s remark, made while pressuring Iran to accept a deal, that “an entire civilization could disappear,” calling it “absolutely unacceptable.”

The U.S. online outlet Axios assessed that “the Iran war has brought tensions between President Trump and the pope to a peak,” calling it “one of the sharpest public clashes between a pope and a U.S. president in decades.”

Even before the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran war, Leo XIV had been at odds with the Trump administration by voicing criticism of the ‘MAGA (Make America Great Again)’ agenda. He is also said to have declined the administration’s request that he attend the United States’ 250th Independence Day commemoration on July 4. There have been reports that the Trump administration exerted overt pressure on Leo XIV.

According to the U.S. outlet ‘The Free Press’, shortly after Leo XIV delivered a speech criticizing the war in January, Elbridge Colby, U.S. Ministry of National Defense Undersecretary for Policy, summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Holy See’s ambassador to the United States, to the Ministry of National Defense and sharply rebuked him. Colby is said to have invoked the ‘Avignon Captivity’, when in the 14th century the papacy submitted to royal power, warning, “The United States possesses military power to do whatever it wants,” and, “The Church would do well to take America’s side.”