BAMENDA: Pope Leo blasted leaders who spend billions on wars, saying the world is “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants”, in unusually strong remarks in Cameroon on Thursday, days after US President Donald Trump attacked him on social media.
Leo, the first American pope, also rejected leaders who used religious language to justify wars and called for a “decisive change of course” in a meeting in the largest city in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, where a simmering conflict dating back nearly a decade has left thousands dead.
“The warlords pretend not to know that it only takes a moment to destroy, but often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” the Pope said.
“They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are being spent on killing and destruction, yet the resources needed for healing, education and recovery are nowhere to be found.”
‘A world turned upside down’
Trump’s attack on Leo, first launched on the eve of the pope’s ambitious four-nation tour of Africa and repeated late Tuesday, has caused consternation in Africa, home to more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics.
Leo, who kept a relatively low profile for most of his first year as head of the 1.4 billion-member church, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the war that began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, said on Thursday that she stood with the Pope in his “courageous call for a kingdom of peace”.
Speaking in the English-speaking city of Bamenda, the pope 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 the sacred into darkness and filth,” he said.
“It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be condemned 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 aimed at US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has invoked Christian language to justify the Iran war.
Trump began his criticism of Leo on Sunday, calling the pope “WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy” in a post on Truth Social.
The US president attacked Leo again on social media late on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Trump posted a photo of Jesus embracing Trump after an earlier photo he posted portraying him as a Jesus-like figure sparked widespread criticism.
Leo told Reuters on Monday that he would not stop speaking out about the Iran war and has avoided answering Trump directly since then.
Three-day ceasefire during visit
After arriving in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde on Wednesday, Leo called on the central African nation’s government – led by President Paul Biya, at 93 the world’s oldest ruler – to root out corruption and resist “the whims of the rich and powerful”.
During a Mass at the airport in Bamenda on Thursday, attended by about 20,000 people, the Pope criticized foreigners exploiting Africa’s wealth, saying they contributed 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 partitioned by Britain and France after the First World War. The French part won independence in 1960 and was joined a year later by the less English-speaking British area to the west.
More than 6,500 people have been killed and more than half a million displaced in fighting between government forces and Anglophone separatist groups, according to the International Crisis Group.
Priests are often kidnapped for ransom and some have been killed. 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 broker a peace deal have so far been weak, 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 broker an end to the fighting.
