BAMENDA: Pope Leo castigated leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”, in unusually forceful remarks in Cameroon on Thursday, days after US President Donald Trump attacked him on social media.
Leo, the first American pope, also denounced leaders who used religious language to justify wars and called for a “decisive change of course” at a meeting in the largest city in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, where a simmering conflict for nearly a decade has left thousands dead.
“The masters of war pretend to ignore that it only takes a moment to destroy, but that often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” the pontiff declared.
“They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are being spent on massacre and devastation, while the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.”
“A world turned upside down”
Trump’s attacks on Leon, first launched on the eve of the pope’s ambitious four-nation African tour and repeated Tuesday evening, have caused consternation in Africa, where more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics live.
Leo, who has remained relatively quiet for most of his first year leading the 1.4 billion-member church, has become an outspoken critic of the war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, said Thursday she stood with the pope in his “courageous call for a kingdom of peace.”
Speaking in the English-speaking town 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 turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation which must be denounced and rejected by every honest conscience.”
The pope made similar remarks last month, saying God rejected the prayers of leaders with “hands full of blood”, in comments widely interpreted as targeting US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who invoked Christian language to justify the war in Iran.
Trump began his criticism of Leo on Sunday, when he called the pope “WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy” in an article on Truth Social.
The US president attacked Leo again on social media on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, Trump posted an image of Jesus kissing Trump, after an earlier image depicting him as a Jesus-like figure drew widespread criticism.
Leo said Reuters Monday that he would not stop talking about the war in Iran and has since avoided responding directly to Trump.
Three-day ceasefire during visit
After arriving in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé on Wednesday, Leo urged the central African country’s government – led by President Paul Biya, 93, the world’s oldest leader – to root out corruption and resist “the whims of the rich and powerful.”
At a mass at Bamenda airport on Thursday, attended by around 20,000 people, the pope criticized foreigners who exploited 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 wealth of the country and the continent,” he said.
Leo’s trip to Bamenda on Thursday raised faint hope that steps could be taken to resolve the conflict there, rooted in the country’s complex colonial and postcolonial history.
Cameroon, a former German colony, was divided by Britain and France after the First World War. The French part gained independence in 1960 and was joined a year later by the smaller English-speaking British zone to the west.
More than 6,500 people have been killed and more than half a million displaced in fighting between government forces and English-speaking separatist groups, according to the International Crisis Group.
Priests are frequently kidnapped for ransom and some have been killed. Pope Leo on Thursday heard 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 comforted that the crisis “has not degenerated into a religious war” and expressed hope that Christian and Muslim leaders could end the fighting.
