BAMENDA: Pope Leo criticized leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was “being devastated by a handful of tyrants”, in unusually blunt comments in Cameroon on Thursday, days after US President Donald Trump attacked him on social media.
Leo, the first American pope, also condemned leaders who used religious language to justify wars and urged a “decisive change of course” at a meeting in the largest city in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, where a simmering conflict dating back almost a decade has left thousands dead.
“The masters of war pretend not to know that it only takes a moment to destroy, but often one life is not enough to rebuild,” the pontiff said.
“They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on carnage and devastation, but the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.”
‘A world upside down’
Trump’s attacks on Leo, first launched on the eve of the pope’s ambitious four-nation tour of Africa and repeated Tuesday night, have caused consternation in Africa, where more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics live.
Leo, who kept a relatively low profile for most of his first year as leader of the 1.4 billion-member Church, has become an outspoken critic of the war that began with the US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, said on Thursday she supported the pope in his “brave call for a kingdom of peace.”
Speaking in the English-speaking city of Bamenda, the pontiff also sharply criticized leaders who invoked religious themes to justify wars.
“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging what is sacred into darkness and filth,” he said.
“It is a world upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that every honest conscience must denounce and reject.”
The pope made similar comments last month, saying God rejected the prayers of leaders with “hands full of blood,” in comments widely interpreted as directed at U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has invoked Christian language to justify the Iran war.
Trump began his criticism of Leo on Sunday, when he called the pope “WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy” in a post on Truth Social.
The president of the United States attacked Leo again on social media late Tuesday. On Wednesday, Trump posted an image of Jesus hugging Trump, after an earlier image he posted that portrayed him as a Jesus-like figure sparked widespread criticism.
Leo said Reuters Monday that he would not stop talking about the Iran war and has avoided responding directly to Trump since then.
Three-day ceasefire during visit
After arriving in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, on Wednesday, Leo urged the Central African nation’s government, led by President Paul Biya, the world’s oldest ruler at 93, to root out corruption and resist “the whims of the rich and powerful.”
During a mass at Bamenda airport on Thursday, attended by about 20,000 people, the Pope criticized foreigners exploiting Africa’s wealth, saying they were contributing to widespread poverty and underdevelopment.
“The time has come, today and not tomorrow, now and not in the future, to restore the mosaic of unity by bringing together the diversity and riches of the country and the continent,” he said.
Leo’s trip on Thursday to Bamenda has raised faint hopes that steps can be taken to resolve the conflict there, rooted in the country’s complex colonial and post-colonial history.
Cameroon, a former German colony, was divided by Great Britain and France after the First World War. The French part gained independence in 1960 and a year later joined the smaller British English-speaking area to the west.
According to the International Crisis Group, more than 6,500 people have been killed and more than half a million displaced in fighting between government forces and Anglophone separatist groups.
Priests are frequently kidnapped for ransom and some have been murdered. Pope Leo heard Thursday from Sister Carine Tangiri Mangu, who described being kidnapped and held hostage for three days last November, and Imam Mohamad Abubakar, who described how gunmen “invaded” a mosque during prayers that same month, killing three people.
A separatist alliance said it would observe a three-day ceasefire to allow civilians and visitors to move freely during the pope’s visit.
Efforts to negotiate a peace deal have so far been limited, although Leo said he was encouraged that the crisis “has not degenerated into a religious war” and expressed hope that Christian and Muslim leaders could mediate to end the fighting.
