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Religion has been used by leaders on all sides of the Iran war to justify their actions
The Pope used the Palm Sunday Mass to reject claims God ‘justifies war’.
As the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its second month, and Russia continues its campaign in Ukraine, Pope Leo stood before the tens of thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Square to insist God was ‘the king of peace’.
He said: “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no-one can use to justify war.
“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
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Religion has been used by leaders on all sides of the Iran war to justify their actions.
Russia’s Orthodox Church also described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “holy war” against a Western world it considers has ‘fallen into evil’.
Palm Sunday celebration began with a procession of cardinals, bishops, priests and laypeople walking into the square carrying olive branches and palm fronds, some of which were intricately braided.
Pope Leo delivered an opening prayer as they stopped at the central obelisk, before proceeding towards the altar to begin the Mass.
The Pope will also return to tradition with the Holy Thursday feet-wash ceremony, which commemorates Jesus’s Last Supper with his disciples.
His predecessor, Pope Francis famously celebrated the Holy Thursday ritual by travelling to Rome-area prisons and refugee centres to wash the feet of people most on society’s margins during his 12-year pontificate.
However Pope Leo, the first US-born Pope, will return the Holy Thursday foot-wash tradition to the basilica of St John Lateran, where popes performed it for decades.
Pope Leo will also preside over the Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum commemorating Christ’s Passion and crucifixion, before baptising new Catholics during the late night Easter Vigil on Saturday.
The Easter Sunday Mass will then be held in St Peter’s Square, and Pope Leo will deliver his Easter blessing from the loggia of the basilica.
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