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  "path": "/2026/04/hegseth-says-us-troops-are-fighting-for.html",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-04T09:50:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://endrtimes.blogspot.com",
  "tags": [
    "Motoko Rich",
    "asked the American people to pray",
    "homily",
    "Holy Thursday rite",
    "warned against invoking the name of Jesus",
    "encouraged U.S. bishops to strongly support immigrants",
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  "textContent": "In sharp contrast to the Trump administration’s calls for Christian prayers for the war effort, Pope Leo XIV says military domination is “entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPope Leo, during the Holy Thursday Mass in Rome, said the Christian mission had often been “distorted by a desire for domination.”Credit...Vincenzo Livieri/Reuters\n\n\n\n\nBy Motoko Rich\n\nReporting from Rome\nApril 3, 2026\n\n\nPete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, has asked the American people to pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ.”\n\nPope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, has a starkly different take on what should be done in Jesus’s name.\n\nIn a homily during a Mass on Thursday morning before Easter, the pope said that the Christian mission has often been “distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.”\n\nSince the United States and Israel began bombing Iran in late February, the pope has consistently called for an end to the violence and a return to dialogue to resolve the conflict. But without naming Mr. Hegseth, he has also pointed out the ways in which Christianity has been marshaled for purposes that the pope says do not align with Catholic teaching.\n\n\n\n\n\n“We tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared,” the pope said in a homily during a Holy Thursday rite at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the bishop of Rome. “God has given us an example — not of how to dominate, but of how to liberate; not of how to destroy life, but of how to give it.”\n\nIn late March the pope warned against invoking the name of Jesus for battle, saying in a Sunday homily that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”\n\nThroughout his first year as pontiff, Leo has been careful not to wade into U.S. politics and has avoided direct confrontation with the White House.\n\nHe has used his influence through proxies, such as when he encouraged U.S. bishops to strongly support immigrants last year as President Trump escalated his deportation campaign.\n\nHe has mentioned Mr. Trump only when asked directly by a reporter if he had a message for the U.S. president.\n\n“I’m told that President Trump recently stated that he would like to end the war,” the pope said outside his country residence in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome on March 31. “Hopefully he’s looking for a way to, to decrease the amount of violence, of bombing.”\n\nPope Leo has said he has not spoken directly to Mr. Trump about the war. But he talked Friday morning by telephone with Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, and reiterated the importance of dialogue and ending the conflicts to secure a “just and lasting peace” in the Middle East, according to a Vatican statement.\n\nJosephine de La Bruyère contributed reporting from Rome.\n\nMotoko Rich is the Times bureau chief in Rome, where she covers Italy, the Vatican and Greece.\nA version of this article appears in print on April 4, 2026, Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Pope Stresses Peace Not War Is the Example God Has Given.\n\n\n\n\nSource\n\n\n\n\n\n",
  "title": "Hegseth Says U.S. Troops Are Fighting for Jesus. The Pope Disagrees.",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-04T09:50:00.117Z"
}