War Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed the ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, stating “We know what our mission is, we know what authority we have.”
Hegseth defended the U.S. military operation against Iran during a Pentagon briefing Friday morning.
“The Pope’s gonna do his thing, that’s fine,” Hegseth said. “We know what our mission is, we know what authority we have. We’re very clear about that, we follow that — the orders of the president.”
“We’ve got lawyers all over the place looking at what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and giving us every authority necessary under the Constitution and under our laws to execute across the spectrum,” he added.
Watch:
U.S. Catholic bishops and Vatican officials have said that the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran does not meet the “just war” standards for conflict.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, said in early April that under the just war theory, the fight “is not” righteous.
Pope Leo, the first American-born Catholic pontiff, has criticized the war and called for an end to the fighting, saying “God does not bless any conflict.”
Those words sparked Trump to respond the pope is “WEAK on crime and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
Trump added he has “a right to disagree with the pope.”
“Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician,” Trump wrote in a post online. “It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”
The pope responded, saying he has “no fear” of the Trump administration.
