One year ago, on May 8, 2025, Cardinal Robert Prevost appeared on the Vatican balcony as Pope Leo XIV. His first year as the Bishop of Rome has been eventful in many ways, most notably because of his statements about peace and war that have been widely applied to the ongoing Iranian War. To his credit, he has refused to engage in debate with those who want to give him lessons in moral theology.

Everything that Pope Leo has said must be understood in context. One month after the bombs began to drop over Iran, many people took exception to the way in which the attack on Iran was being portrayed to the American people. At multiple Defense Department press conferences and some media outlets, the war was being wrapped in Christian prayers reminiscent of the Crusades. God was being invoked to bring “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” References to a “holy war,” a divine mission, a crusade and troops fighting “under the protection of divine providence” all suggested a righteousness to the reasons for launching the war in the first place. According to Pentagon employees, these sentiments were and are at the heart of weekly Pentagon prayer meetings.

Pope Leo, our first American Pope, spoke a message of peace to the world as Holy Week was beginning for Christians. Specifically, he said “This is our God, Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war.” The part that got some regular soldiers concerned was his reference to the Hebrew Scripture Prophet Isaiah’s condemnation of people who pray, on the one hand, but who commit acts of violence and injustice at the same time. “Even though you make many prayers, I (God) will not listen: your hands are full of blood.” (Isaiah 1.15) Pope Leo said, “Jesus rejects the prayers of those who wage war.”

Military chaplains have a proud history in our nation going back to George Washington. Praying for the safety and well-being of women and men in uniform has never been a contentious issue nor is it today. What is at issue is the use of prayer to bless bombs and the attempt to portray God as a partisan in an active conflict that most Americans believe to have been unnecessary.

In the background to all of this is Pope Leo’s continual advocacy for diplomacy and non-lethal means for settling disputes among nations. Waging a shooting war should only be an absolute last option when nations have serious differences over major issues. There is a consensus among major powers that Iran should never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon. This consensus was the foundation of the international process during a previous administration that reduced enriched Iranian uranium by 95% and codified a promise that Iran would not seek to create or acquire a nuclear weapon. When this agreement was unilaterally abrogated on May 8, 2018, Iran restarted enriching 1,000 pounds of weapons grade uranium.

In June of last year, Operation Midnight Hammer was a U.S. military attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. According to the Pentagon, over 12 days, bunker-busting bombs and other ordinance were used to obliterate Iran’s capacity to construct a nuclear bomb. This assessment was seemingly ignored when Iran bombing began again in late February. Multiple and confusing justifications were put forth for the U.S. attack on Iran.

Behind Pope Leo’s comments about war and diplomacy is this real history that the conditions for waging a just war were simply not present. Iran presented no imminent danger to anyone. There was no clear calculation about its impact on its neighbors or international shipping. Nor was there any reliable intelligence or expectation that the Iranian people would rise up and wrest their government from the tyrannical rulers that have held sway for the past four decades.

Our American Pope knows better than any of his predecessors that U.S. soldiers who are in harm’s way deserve our prayers and our support. His comments about whose prayers God ignores are more aptly applied to those who would seek to use God’s name for self-serving and partisan goals. God is all about love, peace, and mercy; not about bombs, vengeance, and war.

Msgr. Garrity is a Senior Priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish and School