Global Church Leaders, Including Cardinal Müller, Continue to Unite Behind Pope Leo
Several cardinals and bishops in Italy, England and Scotland are among those who have recently praised Leo XIV’s calls for peace after Trump’s criticism.
The number of international Church leaders who have come to the defense of Pope Leo XIV following President Donald Trump’s verbal attacks continues to grow and now includes Cardinal Gerhard Müller.
Cardinal Müller, a former prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that no one has the right to criticize the Pope when he is faithfully bearing witness to the Gospel of peace, adding that nobody should exploit the name of God for their own interests.
“No one can expect anything other from the Holy Father than his commitment to earthly peace among peoples,” the cardinal said in a statement published Tuesday by the Austrian Catholic website Kath.net.
Cardinal Müller also stressed that he and all cardinals have promised obedience to the Pope and “to stand up for him and the Church of Christ even at the cost of our own lives.” The German cardinal also reflected on the ethical complexities of restraining dangerous regimes like Iran’s while avoiding the moral pitfalls of waging war.
Through his statement, Cardinal Müller joined a number of other Church leadersoutside the U.S. who have pushed back against Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo’s opposition of the Iran war, originally communicated via social media on April 12.
Trump accused the Pope of being “terrible for foreign policy” and suggested that the Pontiff believes it is “OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.” He also criticized Leo for being too political and suggested the first-ever American Pontiff had only been elected pope last year to counterbalance his leadership.
Other Church Leaders Add Support
Others who have come to the defense of Pope Leo include Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general of Rome, who released an April 13 statement of “full support” for the Pope “in the face of disconcerting attacks on his teaching of peace.” The Gospel of the Beatitudes, he added, “is the very essence of the Church’s mission, and no one and nothing, deluded by the illusory glimmer of arrogance, will be able to stand in its way.”
The Italian bishops’ conference, led by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, also expressed “regret for the words addressed” to Pope Leo XIV, explicitly backing U.S. bishops’ conference president Archbishop Paul Coakley’s defense of the Pope and affirming his role as Successor of Peter serving the Gospel, truth and peace.
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I support the Holy Father’s call for peace, but the President is confronted by a state that threatens the safety of multiple nations, not least of which is the United States and Israel
“ Death to Israel”, “Death to America ” echoes through the halls of the UN
Thousands of Persians have been gunned down in the streets of Iranian streets.
How does this differ from what Britain confronted on the continent, as German troops moved into Poland, ostensibly to letterman minorities ?
Mere calls for peace and dialogue do not create circumstances that result in peace. "Blessed are the peacemakers ..." does not apply to leaders or persons who call for peace - it applies to leaders and organizations that actually produce the possibility of peace. In the modern world that organization is the United States military. The Iran regime has fomented wars and terrorism throughout the Mideast since its inception and has brutally oppressed the people of Iran - most recently by slaughtering 30,000 - to 40,000 citizens, and executing an Olympic champion to instill fear in the populace. Now we know that Iran not only hid uranium capable of being made into bombs, but built ICBMs with a range of 4,000 miles - capable of destroying any city in Europe. In accordance with Just War principles President Trump has ordered elimination of the threat and an end to Iranian sponsored terrorism. He and the US military are the peacemakers. The Pope should be ashamed of his condemnation of the US war policy in Iran.