Tag: Pope Leo XIV

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Pope lashes out at foreigners who exploit Africa

Pope Leo XIV has criticised foreigners who exploit the wealth of Africa for profit during his visit to a conflict-hit region of Cameroon.

It is one of several forthright remarks he has made over the last day, including blasting those who spend billions on wars and telling Cameroon’s government to root out corruption for peace to prevail.

He has spent the day in Bamenda, a city at the centre of Cameroon’s brutal and long-running separatist rebellion.

Internal problems were exacerbated by outsiders who “in the name of profit, continue to lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it”, he told an estimated 20,000 worshippers at a Mass at Bamenda Airport.

Earlier, joyful crowds sang, drummed and waved flags to welcome the leader of the Catholic Church, who arrived under military escort in a bullet-proof white vehicle.

Ahead of his visit, Anglophone separatists had announced a period of “safe travel passage”.

The Pope’s first stop was at a peace meeting in Bamenda held at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral about the nearly 10-year insurgency in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions that has left at least 6,000 people dead and many more forced from their homes.

“Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilisation and death,” said the 70-year-old Pope.

Since 2017, those seeking to create a breakaway state in Cameroon’s Anglophone region have been fighting government forces.

They are angered by what they see as the marginalisation of Cameroon’s English-speaking minority by the Francophone-dominated government.

Religious leaders and victims of the Anglophone conflict took turns to share the impact of the fighting with the Pope.

A Muslim leader decried the killing of members of the Mbororo indigenous community, looting of cattle and other items.

A nun revealed details of her kidnap by separatist fighters, highlighting the severity of the conflict.

Another man shared how he was forced to flee his home.

The Pope commended their work and said it was a model for the whole world: “Let us thank God that this crisis has not degenerated into a religious war.”

Commentators say the Pope has been unusually blunt in his speeches in Cameroon.

On Wednesday at the presidential palace in the capital, Yaoundé, he gave pointed advice to the government during at address also attended by President Paul Biya.

“In order for peace and justice to prevail, the chains of corruption – which disfigure authority and strip it of its credibility – must be broken,” he said. (BBC)

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Trump turns on Meloni; says he is ‘shocked’ by Italian leader


Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lacks courage and has let Washington down, U.S. President Donald Trump told an Italian newspaper on Tuesday, delivering a ‌blunt public rebuke to one of his closest European allies.

Meloni had been a vociferous supporter of Trump, but she distanced herself from him after he went to war with Iran in February, and on Monday she openly criticized ‌him for lashing out at Pope Leo, saying his verbal assault ⁠was “unacceptable”.

Trump responded in an interview with Corriere della Sera, saying Meloni was “very ⁠different from what I ⁠thought” and denouncing her for refusing to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz, which has ‌been blocked by Iran.

“I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage. I was wrong,” he was ⁠quoted as saying in the Italian-language article.

The White ⁠House declined to comment on the reported quotes. Meloni’s office also declined to comment, but politicians of all stripes rallied to her defence, including Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, head of the coalition Forza Italia party.

“We are, and will remain, sincere supporters of Western ⁠unity and steadfast allies of the United States, but that unity is built on loyalty, ⁠respect and mutual frankness,” he said, applauding Meloni ‌for denouncing Trump’s attack on the pope.

“On Pope Leo XIV, she said exactly what all of us Italian citizens think,” he added in a statement on X.

Trump’s criticism marked a dramatic change in tone toward Meloni, the only European leader to attend ‌his inauguration in 2025 and whom he had hailed as “a great leader” just one month ago.

On Tuesday he accused her of failing to back U.S. efforts to tackle Iran’s nuclear program and guarantee energy flows through the Gulf, saying she wanted America “to do the job for her.”

Asked about her condemnation of his comments on Pope Leo, he said: “She is the one who is unacceptable, because she does not care whether Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow Italy up ​in two minutes if it had the chance.”

The reprimand capped a tumultuous month for Meloni, who lost a crunch referendum on judicial reform in March and then saw her ‌political ally Viktor Orban ousted from power in Hungary.

The U.S.-Israeli war in the Gulf threatens to upend the economy with surging energy costs and is hugely unpopular with Italians, putting Meloni on a collision course with Trump.

Seeking to distance ‌herself from the conflict, she refused to let U.S. fighters use an air base in Sicily ⁠for combat operations in Iran last ⁠month and on Tuesday, she suspended a military ​cooperation pact with Israel.

Trump said the surge in energy prices should have encouraged Italy, ⁠which is heavily dependent on ‌oil and gas imports, to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz.

“They pay ​the highest energy costs in the world and are not even ready to fight for the Strait of Hormuz… They depend on Donald Trump to keep it open,” Trump said. (JapanToday)

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Italian PM condemns ally Trump over ‘unacceptable’ Pope criticism

Donald Trump’s remarks about Pope Leo XIV were “unacceptable”, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.

The US president accused the pontiff of being “WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy” in a long Truth Social post, later telling reporters he was “not a big fan”.

“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war,” Meloni said in a statement.

Meloni, who is a Catholic and heads a right-wing coalition government, is a close ally of Trump and had so far been reluctant to condemn the US president’s harsh criticism of Pope Leo.

Italian opposition parties have criticised Meloni for failing to speak out promptly.

Her coalition partner Matteo Salvini, the leader of the populist League party, said that “attacking the Pope… doesn’t seem like a useful or intelligent thing to do.”

After Trump’s remarks, the Pope told reporters en route to Algeria that he did not want to get into a debate with Trump but would continue to promote peace.

Pope Leo has said he has “no fear” of the Trump administration and will continue to speak out against war after the US president launched an unusual and scathing attack over his stance on the Iran conflict.

He has been a staunch critic of the Iran war, calling Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilisation “unacceptable” and calling for him to find an “off-ramp” to end the conflict.

On Monday, Trump doubled down on his criticism, saying he would not apologise to the “very weak” Pope.

In general, it is rare for a Pope to directly address statements by world leaders.

There are more than 70 million Catholics in the US, about 20% of the population. They include Trump’s Vice-President JD Vance.

Trump’s comments came as the pontiff embarked on an 11-day trip to Africa, his second major foreign trip since being elected last year.

The US president wrote in Sunday’s post that the Pope “should get his act together” and said he was “weak on nuclear weapons”, apparently referring to Tehran’s attempts to become a nuclear power, cited as one of the reasons for the US and Israel going to war with Iran.

He also suggested that the pontiff was elected “because he was American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J Trump”.

“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”

Asked by reporters to explain the post, he later said: “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job, he likes crime, I guess.”

Trump added: “He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man who doesn’t believe in stopping crime, he’s a man who doesn’t believe we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world.”

In response, the Pope told reporters on board his plane to Algiers that he did not see his role as that of a politician but as one of spreading the message of peace.

“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do,” he told reporters.

“I don’t want to get into a debate with [Trump],” he added. (BBC)

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Pope appoints new leader of Catholic Church in England and Wales

The Vatican has announced that Richard Moth will be the new Archbishop of Westminster, making him the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

He succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has held the role since 2009 and has stepped down aged 80.

For the past 10 years Richard Moth has been Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, and before that served as Bishop of the Forces.

As Archbishop of Westminster he will become president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and lead an estimated four million Catholics.

Cardinal Nichols reached retirement age when he was 75, but was asked to stay on by Pope Francis. In May he took part in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

The search for a replacement for Cardinal Nichols was led by the Apostolic Nuncio, or papal ambassador to the UK, who presented a list of potential candidates to Pope Leo.

Earlier this week, Archbishop Moth released a joint statement calling for empathy for “those who come to this country for their safety”, reminding Catholics that Jesus’s family fled to Egypt as refugees.

He has been one of the bishops leading the Church’s response to social justice issues in the UK, including praising the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, outgoing Cardinal Nichols said his successor would bring “experience and practical wisdom to the life of the diocese”.

Archbishop Moth said: “My first task here is to get to know everybody… to get to know priests and people, to get to know schools, to get to know the life of this wonderful diocese here in Westminster”.

He said his focus had “consistently been in the area of social justice”, adding he had a “particular concern for prisons”.

Archbishop Moth will face the challenge of declining numbers of people attending churches nationally, though there is growth in some churches with immigrant Catholics.

In response to the growing use of Christian symbols at, for example, rallies organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, Bishop Moth has talked of his concern.

Last weekend, Robinson held an event in London saying he wanted to “reclaim” the country’s heritage and Christian identity.

“We are concerned about the tensions that are growing in society and the desire by some groups to sow seeds of division within our communities. This does not reflect the spirit or message of Christmas,” Bishop Moth said in a statement with the Archbishop of Birmingham.

The Catholic Church has been heavily involved in providing assistance to those who have suffered in the cost of living crisis.

As archbishop, Richard Moth will also lead the Church’s constant challenge of dealing with safeguarding issues.

In 2020, a wide-ranging inquiry into child sexual abuse found that between 1970 and 2015 the Catholic Church in England and Wales received more than 3,000 complaints of child sexual abuse against more than 900 individuals connected to the Church.

In fact, the leadership of Archbishop Moth’s predecessor, Cardinal Nichols, was criticised in the inquiry report, which said he cared more about the impact of abuse on the Church’s reputation than on the victims.

At the time, Cardinal Nichols apologised and said he accepted the report, adding: “That so many suffered is a terrible shame with which I must live and from which I must learn.”

Cardinal Nichols retires having led the Church in England and Wales for 16 years, during which it faced enormous change.

He is the son of two teachers and was born in Crosby. The lifelong Liverpool FC fan took up his first role as a priest in Wigan.

In 2010, he welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to England on an official visit. (BBC)

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Pope Leo welcomes Hollywood stars to the Vatican

Pope Leo has held an audience with Hollywood stars, urging actors and directors including Cate Blanchett, Viggo Mortensen and Monica Bellucci to continue their work as “pilgrims of the imagination”, helping to “bring hope”.

The celebrity meeting was a sprinkling of star dust for a still relatively new pope and a way for the Catholic Church to engage more with the world beyond.

It was also a strong show of support from Leo XIV for the global film industry, as he spoke out against the “troubling decline” in cinema-going.

Hailed by director Spike Lee as a “great day”, the gathering was the first of its kind in the Vatican.

Beneath the magnificent frescoes of the Clementine Hall, Pope Leo spoke in Italian to praise the power of cinema to entertain and to educate – and for its “capacity to amaze”.

But he urged filmmakers not to shy away from what he called “the world’s wounds”.

“Violence, poverty, exile, loneliness, addiction and forgotten wars are issues that need to be acknowledged and narrated,” the Pope said. “Good cinema does not exploit pain; it recognizes and explores it. This is what all the great directors have done.”

Six months since a conclave of cardinals elected the first North American to the Papacy, some Catholics feel that Leo has been slow to stamp his own mark on the role.

His predecessor, Francis, was a charismatic Argentinian known for his off-the-cuff comments and dramatic gestures. Leo’s style is far quieter, so this star-studded engagement is a new look.

It’s not clear how the cast list was drawn up, although none of the directors in the hall – who came from all over the world – made it onto the Pope’s own top film list.

This week, the Vatican revealed that his favourite four watches of all time included the 1960s nun-themed classic The Sound of Music, It’s a Wonderful Life and Italian Roberto Benigni’s multi award-winning Life is Beautiful.

Among those who did join today’s A-list audience were Mortensen, Chris Pine and filmmaker Gus Van Sant – of Milk and Good Will Hunting fame. The large Italian contingent included Gianni Amelio and Cinema Paradiso creator, Giuseppe Tornatore.

At a time of immense pressure on film, not long after a major Hollywood strike and with funding strains here in Italy, the Pope spoke in defence of the industry.

He was applauded loudly when he talked of the “quiet dedication” of all those behind the scenes with vital roles.

He also warned against the closure of cinemas which he characterised as the “beating heart of communities”.

“More than a few people are saying that the art of cinema and the cinematic experience are in danger. I urge institutions not to give up, but to cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value of this activity,” the Pope said.

After a fifteen-minute speech and a blessing he then received each audience member in turn, led by Blanchett.

“He really urged us to go back into our day jobs and inspire people,” the Australian-born star told reporters.

One of many who came bearing gifts, the actress – who works with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR – placed a woven bracelet in the Pope’s hand. “It was a bracelet I wear in solidarity with people who are displaced,” she explained later.

Lee handed the Chicago-born Pope a New York Knicks shirt printed with the number 14 and the words Pope Leo. (BBC)