Pope warns against ‘spiral of violence’ as US attacks Iran

ROME – Pope Leo XVI urged an end to fresh violence in the Middle East on Sunday, as joint U.S.-Israeli air strikes on Iran continued into their second day.

In  an Angelus appeal, Pope Leo said he was following “with deep concern what is happening in the Middle East and in Iran in these dramatic hours.”

“Stability and peace are not built with mutual threats nor with weapons, which sow destruction, pain, and death, but only with a reasonable, authentic and responsible dialogue,” the pontiff said.

Leo warned that the situation in Iran risked escalating into “a tragedy of enormous proportions” and urged all parties involved “to assume the moral responsibility of halting the spiral of violence before it becomes an unbridgeable chasm.”

“May diplomacy regain its proper role, and may the well-being of peoples, who yearn for peaceful existence founded on justice, be upheld,” he said, “and let us continue to pray for peace.”

US-Israeli attacks in detail

The pope’s appeal came after the United States and Israel began attacks on Saturday, hitting various military and security targets in Iran. Among those killed in the strikes were Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top officials.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has pledged revenge and says it has already launched a counterattack on 27 bases hosting U.S. troops in the Middle East and on Israeli military facilities in Tel Aviv, with explosions also heard in Qatar and the UAE.

At least 24 of Iran’s 31 provinces were hit, according to a spokesman for the Iranian Red Crescent, with videos circulating on social media showing plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky in multiple cities throughout the country.

In a televised address Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “[W]e destroyed the compound of the tyrant Khamenei in the heart of Tehran.”

U.S. President Donald Trump later wrote on his own Truth Social platform, “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead.”

Hours later, Iranian state media confirmed the Ayatollah had been killed.

Dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” the offensive comes after weeks of threats on the part of Trump if Iran did not agree to pen a new deal over its nuclear program. Iran had refused, however, arguing that its nuclear activities are peaceful.

Shortly after the attacks commenced on Saturday, the U.S. president told the Iranian people, “Now is the time to seize control of your destiny,” and urged them to overthrow the theocratic regime that has ruled the country since 1979.

“This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass,” Trump said.

Observers and stakeholders in the U.S. and abroad have various opinions of this latest U.S. military action undertaken at Trump’s orders, but there is broad agreement that “regime change” in Iran is far more easily hoped-for than accomplished.

The context of a crisis

In 2018, during his first term as president, Trump withdrew from a 2015 Obama-era agreement with Iran designed to delay Iran’s development of nuclear weapons capability indefinitely by a combination of sanctions and incentives, calling the deal ineffective and reimposing a strict sanctions program.

In June of last year, tensions spiked when the U.S. bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran, days after Israel launched a series of missile attacks on Iran military and nuclear sites, sparking a back-and-forth bombing spree that also prompted a call for peace from Pope Leo.

On that occasion, in his June 22, 2025, Angelus address, Leo lamented the violence and its impact on the people in a “third world war fought piecemeal.”

“War does not solve problems; on the contrary, it amplifies them and inflicts deep wounds on the history of peoples, which take generations to heal,” he said, and called for diplomacy.

This latest military action in Iran follows the forcible U.S. removal of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in January on drug trafficking charges, one of several U.S. military actions during Trump’s second term, which began a little more than a year ago.

Trump won a second term after pledging to keep the U.S. out of costly foreign wars, but has either initiated or renewed U.S. military involvement in several countries, including Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Nigeria, as well as naval interventions purportedly related to drug interdiction efforts in the Caribbean.

Trump has also threatened to use military force against several other countries, including U.S. allies.

Second Sunday in Lent

In his Angelus address, Leo reflected on the biblical account of the Transfiguration of Jesus, calling the scene a foreshadowing of “the light of Easter.”

Easter, he said, is “an event of death and resurrection, of darkness and new light that Christ radiates on all bodies scourged by violence, crucified by pain, or abandoned in misery.”

“Indeed, while evil reduces our flesh to a commodity or an anonymous mass, this same flesh shines with the glory of God,” he said, saying Jesus “thus transfigures the wounds of history, enlightening our minds and hearts: his revelation is a gift of salvation!”

He then questioned believers, asking, “Does this captivate us? Do we see the true face of God with a gaze of wonder and love?” before leading those gathered in praying the traditional Marian prayer.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen