“Enough of War” — Pope Leo XIV Denounces the “Delusion of Omnipotence” at St. Peter's Prayer Vigil

The pope called on world leaders to "stop" and sit at the table of dialogue — a direct message to the Islamabad negotiators as the fragile ceasefire enters its final days.

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Before you read on: Pope Leo XIV has asked Americans to contact their members of Congress and demand an end to the war in Iran. Answer the pope’s call in one click at standwithpopeleo.com, an app we built to make it as easy as possible.

Pope Leo XIV stood at the tomb of St. Peter on Saturday evening and dismantled every religious justification the Trump administration has offered for its war on Iran — without naming a single country or president.

The prayer vigil, announced during the pope’s Easter Urbi et Orbi message and joined by parishes on every continent, drew thousands to St. Peter’s Basilica for an evening of rosary, meditation on the Church Fathers, and candlelight carried from the Lamp of Peace in Assisi.

Faithful from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania lit candles with the flame that burns perpetually at the tomb of St. Francis. The homily they heard named no president and cited no country. They did not need the pope to be more specific.

“We are surrounded by a delusion of omnipotence that is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive,” Leo said. “The balance within the human family has been severely destabilized. Even the holy name of God, the God of life, is being dragged into discourses of death.”

That passage arrives five days after President Trump told reporters that God supports the American strikes on Iran and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing beside him, compared the rescue of a downed U.S. pilot to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When the pope said “the holy name of God is being dragged into discourses of death,” he was naming the blasphemy at the heart of this war: the claim that the God of life endorses the killing of thousands.

Leo then turned to the question of who is threatening death — and who is worshipping it.

“Those who pray do not kill or threaten with death,” the pope said. “Death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind, and deaf idol — to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee.”

The language drew from the prophetic tradition of Isaiah and Jeremiah — the denunciation of idols fashioned by human hands that cannot see, hear, or speak. Leo applied that ancient framework to the present with unmistakable precision. A leader who demands the whole world bend its knee to his power has fashioned himself into a false god, mute to the cries of those being killed, blind to the children in the rubble, deaf to the voices calling for peace.

“Enough of the idolatry of self and money,” Leo said. “Enough of the display of power. Enough of war. True strength is shown in serving life.”

The pope then addressed the leaders sitting in capitals where war decisions get made.

“To them we cry out: stop! It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation — not at the table where rearmament is planned and deadly actions are decided.”

That demand carries direct relevance to Vice President JD Vance, who is leading the U.S. delegation in Islamabad for peace talks brokered by Pakistan.

The two-week ceasefire that Pope Leo called “a sign of living hope” earlier this week remains fragile. Netanyahu has lobbied against it. The White House has already signaled that reparations and sanctions relief are “off the table.” Two of Iran’s central conditions may be stripped before negotiations even begin.

Earlier in the homily, Leo invoked a lineage of papal authority on war and peace — Paul VI’s appeal at the United Nations (“We must do everything possible”), John XXIII’s warning (“Nothing is lost by peace; everything may be lost by war”), and John Paul II’s plea after surviving World War II (“No more war”).

Finally, he cited his immediate predecessor by name: “As Pope Francis taught us, there is also a need for peacemakers — men and women prepared to work boldly and creatively to initiate processes of healing and renewed encounter.”

Four popes across four generations, all arriving at the same conclusion, channeled through the voice of a fifth at the tomb of the first.

Leo closed the vigil with a prayer to Christ. “Grant us your peace,” he said, “as you did to the disciples who were hiding in fear. May the madness of war cease, and the earth be cared for and cultivated by those who still know how to bring forth, protect, and love life.”

The pope has called for an end to the Iran war repeatedly since early March — from his Lenten Angeluses appealing for a ceasefire, to his Easter address telling those with weapons to lay them down, to his direct appeal to Trump to look for an off-ramp, to his condemnation of the “unacceptable” threat to annihilate a civilization.

This vigil extended the pattern from papal statement into global liturgical action — a coordinated act of prayer broadcast to every diocese, calling millions into the same demand.

“Now more than ever,” Pope Leo said, “we must show that peace is not a utopia.”

The Islamabad talks began on Friday. The ceasefire expires in nine days. The rest is up to the leaders who claim to govern in God’s name — and the citizens who can still hold them to account at standwithpopeleo.com.

At Letters from Leo, we stand with Pope Leo XIV and the millions who gathered at St. Peter’s and in parishes across the world on Saturday to pray for what every person of goodwill knows must come: an end to the killing.

The pope has called for peace again and again since the start of the war, naming the blasphemy of invoking God to justify war and asking ordinary citizens to pick up the phone and demand that their leaders choose dialogue over destruction.

More than 23,000 calls and emails have poured through standwithpopeleo.com because this community refused to stay silent — and the fragile ceasefire that followed is proof that moral pressure works.

This is the fastest-growing Catholic community in the country because readers are hungry for a faith that meets the machinery of war with the full weight of the Gospel. As the Islamabad talks approach and the ceasefire hangs by a thread, that hunger has never been more urgent.

If you believe this movement matters — Catholics and people of goodwill standing with Pope Leo XIV for human dignity against the idolatry of power — I am asking you to join us.

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