Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has issued a reprimand to Pope Leo XIV, accusing him of misquoting the Bible and engaging in moral equivocation in his Holy Week remarks on the Iran war.
On Easter Sunday, Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss wrote to Leo on behalf of the Chief Rabbinate, rebuking him for distorting the words of the prophet Isaiah to argue that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”
Leo had quoted Isaiah 1:15 in his Palm Sunday homily, preaching that God “rejects” the prayers of warmongers. Writing in the eighth century BCE, the Judahite prophet declares: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”
Leo had quoted Isaiah 1:15 in his Palm Sunday homily, preaching that God “rejects” the prayers of warmongers.
Stressing that God “always rejects violence,” Leo also quoted Zechariah (9:9-10): “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.”
Weiss, a member of the Interreligious Committee for Relations with the Vatican, corrected Leo’s interpretation of Isaiah, explaining that the prophet’s words “were directed against injustice, corruption, and moral failure” and “not spoken to deny a people the right to protect themselves from annihilation.”
The rabbi, who signed a Vatican interfaith declaration in 2019 rejecting euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, reminded Leo that Isaiah’s words “require careful application” precisely because they “carry immense moral weight.”
“A sweeping condemnation of ‘those who wage war,’ without distinction between aggressor and defender, risks creating a profound moral confusion,” Weiss emphasized. “It places those who seek to preserve life in the same category as those who seek to destroy it.”
The rabbi urged Leo to clarify “the moral difference” and “essential distinction” between “those who initiate violence and those who are compelled to defend the sanctity of life” in his future statements.
Israel is “not engaged in a war of choice” but “is confronting an existential threat from forces that have openly declared their intention to destroy it, and which have actively pursued the means to do so, including the development of weapons capable of devastating entire populations,” Weiss noted.
Catholics and Protestants have largely rejected the American pontiff’s rhetoric against the U.S.-Israel-led bombing of Iran.
“Pope Leo didn’t name names. He didn’t have to. This was a shot at Donald Trump.”
“The pontiff wrongly suggests that pacifism is the sole acceptable moral position,” Catholic commentator William McGurn wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “Pope Leo didn’t name names. He didn’t have to. This was a shot at Donald Trump.”
Monsignor Gene Gomulka questioned Leo’s “moral credibility,” arguing that the pope had never addressed the Iranian government’s massacre of over 30,000 protestors. God “does not listen” to popes who cover up the child sex abuse, the former naval chaplain wrote, noting that Leo has yet to discipline more than 160 bishops accused of such crimes.
“King David, he prayed that God would train his hands how to fight his enemies,” evangelical leader Franklin Graham said. “We know that God does take sides in history, certainly as it relates to biblical history. God gave great favor, great wisdom to David, every time he went into battle.”
In a parody of the pontiff’s sermon, the satirical website Babylon Bee wrote: “Pope Leo explains [that] God does not listen to people who wage war, so long as you don’t count Moses, David, Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Gideon, Samson, or anyone else in the Bible.”
Biblical scholars note the irony of Leo’s use of Isaiah and Zechariah. When King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah (701 BCE), King Hezekiah prayed for deliverance. Isaiah assures the Judean king that God will act “because you have prayed to me,” and God’s angel kills 185,000 Assyrians. In the book of Zechariah, God himself fights directly against the nations attacking Jerusalem.
Other commentators slammed the Augustinian pope for “rhetorically gutting” the Just War Theory propounded by St. Augustine, the founder of his religious order.
The Vatican continues to maintain diplomatic relations with Iran, as well as academic cooperation with the Ahl al-Bayt University.
Traditionalist Catholic antisemitic influencers are citing Leo’s anti-war sermons in their attacks on Trump and his pro-Israel evangelical voter base, threatening to split the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
The pope’s words also appear to be influencing Italy’s nominally Catholic population, where 39 percent of Italians ages 18 to 45 declare themselves pacifist conscientious objectors, as per a July 2025 survey by the Centre for Social Investment Studies. Italy has denied permission for U.S. military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily before heading to Iran.
Meanwhile, the Vatican continues to maintain diplomatic relations with Iran, as well as academic cooperation with the Ahl al-Bayt University, which Euractiv media sources described as “being linked to the ideological framework of Iran’s ayatollah-led regime” and an Iranian “propaganda initiative” to the Holy See.
In November 2025, the Vatican’s Pontifical University Antonianum signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ahl al-Bayt University despite widespread international criticism over Iran’s human rights violations.
