Commentary: Pope Leo's brave stance against Trump

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A war for the soul of the world is happening right now that’s straight out of the Bible — and I’m not just talking about the Middle East.In one corner are President Trump and his minions, who insist that everything they do is divinely mandated.They have consistently invoked a violent version of God as they deport undocumented immigrants, try to make the United States whiter, rip up long-standing treaties with allies, rain down bombs like a biblical plague on supposed narco boats and choke nations they deem a threat or whose resources they covet.

They’re the ones who lecture religious leaders on what Jesus stood for, demanding blessings for Trump’s actions — or else.As the Iran war ratchets up with no end in sight, this devotion to Trump is veering into idolatry.Just check out the recent allegations in The Free Press that senior defense officials dressed down the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S.in January over Pope Leo XIV’s lack of enthusiasm for Trump’s imperialist ambitions.

Or Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, he of the tattoos hailing the blood thirst of the Crusades (another Middle Eastern forever war that the “civilized” side lost), who compared the rescue of a downed American aviator in Iran over Easter weekend to the resurrection of Jesus.It’s a playbook straight out of the Book of Revelations, which describes a Beast in the End Times with “a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies” in its quest to hold dominion over the earth.

In the other corner of this existential fight is an actual man of God: Pope Leo XIV.Rather than cower before a despot who makes the Pharaoh in the Old Testament seem as stable and kind as St.Francis, the first American pope has resisted Trump like a protester at a “No Kings” rally.

He has yet to denounce by name anyone in the president’s sordid orbit — but Pope Leo has returned to their actions again and ...