The feud between Pope Leo and President Trump took yet another twist and turn.
No one saw this development coming.
And now the Pope just blindsided Donald Trump with this unthinkable confession.
President Trump reignited his verbal sparring with Pope Leo over the Iran War on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show.
Trump claimed Leo is “endangering a lot of Catholics” because Trump said Leo thinks it’s “fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Leo argued he opposed the war on moral grounds and that the Catholic Church’s teaching agrees with President Trump’s desire to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The church, Leo told reporters, has “for years spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there.”
“The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” Leo added.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio cleared up the dispute during a White House press briefing ahead of his trip to the Vatican to meet with the Pope.
Rubio told reporters this trip was on the books long before Pope Leo and Trump exchanged barbs over the Iran War.
“No, I mean, it’s a trip we had planned from before, and obviously we had some stuff that happened,” Rubio stated. “No, look, there’s a lot to talk about with the Vatican, and I’ll give you one example. The pope just had a trip to Africa, where the church is growing very vibrantly. And we have shared concerns about religious freedom, religious freedom in different parts of the world, and we’d love to talk to them about that.”
Rubio explained that what President Trump meant by the Pope endangering Catholics with his opposition to the Iran War was that Iran possessing a nuclear weapon would increase the risk of a nuclear war, which could lead to the deaths of tens of millions of Catholics.
“I think what the president basically said is Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon because they would use it against places that have a lot of Catholics and Christians and others, for that matter,” Rubio continued. “It goes back to the central point, I think the president, without trying to speak for him, but I think I can characterize it this way. He doesn’t understand why anybody, leave aside the pope, the president, and I, for that matter, I think most people, I cannot understand why anyone would think it’s a good idea for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon.”
Rubio then asserted that Iran possessing a nuclear weapon would allow it to shut down the Strait of Hormuz whenever it wanted, and there would be nothing anyone could do about it.
“Look what they’re doing with the straits right now. They’re holding the whole world hostage. They have these sailors on commercial ships who are gonna starve to death out there. They don’t care,” Rubio concluded. “They don’t care that this is melting down economies around the world, even of their own allies. This is what they’re doing with the straits. What do you think they would do if they had a nuclear weapon? They would hold the world hostage with that nuclear weapon.”
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