Pope Leo XIV Awards Top Diplomatic Honor to Iran’s Ambassador — Mid-War
The American pope named Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of Pius IX in the same week Donald Trump declared the ceasefire “on life support” and accused Leo of wanting Tehran armed with nuclear weapons.
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Pope Leo XIV has named Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari, Iran’s ambassador to the Vatican, a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of Pius IX, according to a certificate dated May 8 and signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope’s Secretary of State.
The honor raises the Iranian envoy to one of the most senior classes of the highest active papal order, founded in 1847 by Pope Pius IX and conferred today on senior diplomats and heads of state.
By itself, the award is not unusual. By Vatican custom, the Grand Cross is ordinarily conferred on resident ambassadors to the Holy See after roughly two years in post, and Mokhtari presented his credentials to Pope Francis in December 2023 — two and a half years before Cardinal Parolin signed this certificate.
But Iranian state media is not treating this as a routine retirement honor. PressTV and the West Asia News Agency are running the certificate alongside images of Mokhtari with Pope Leo XIV, framing the medal as a counter-signal from an American pope to a wartime American president — a quiet diplomatic verdict on Donald Trump’s bombing campaign against Iran
The timing is for them the story.
Top conservatives in the United States seem to agree. Some went to X (formerly Twitter) to express their dismay, including Fox News host Brian Kilmeade.
