Back in October I wrote about how right wing Christianity was dealing with the election of a new pope. TL:DR:  they disliked him. They have not warmed up to him over the intervening months, and it’s all come to a frothy head with the US war with Iran. And it’s glorious.

During the Palm Sunday service at the Vatican Pope Leo preached on the Iran war:

While opening the Catholic Church’s holiest week on Sunday, March 29, the Pope, 70, told the crowd of tens of thousands gathered in Vatican City that God cannot be used to “justify war” and that God rejects the prayers of those who wage them, according to Reuters and USA Today. He also called the ongoing fighting in the Middle East “atrocious,” per the outlets.

Referring to Jesus in his Sunday homily at St. Peter’s Square, the pontiff said, “He did not arm himself, or ​defend himself, or fight any war. He revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence.”

“Rather than saving ​himself, he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, embracing every cross borne in every time and place throughout human history,” he told the crowd.

“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” he continued, before referencing a Bible passage, Isaiah 1:15, to seemingly take aim at the world leaders guiding the Iran war.

He continued, “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’ ”

He also posted a version of the homily on Twitter where it caught the eye of Christian Nationalists who are so angry that the guy they thought was going to be another Benedict, i.e., one of them, refused to push their narrative.

Some had a hard time finding the quote which was obviously from the Bible:

Things got spicy when one of the most well-known Christian Nationalist got into an argument with Christopher Hale who writes a very popular blog about Pope Leo called Letters From Leo:

The reality of course is that Stuckey knows nothing about Catholicism.

The CNs must obviously be right because look how long this tweet is:

Or you can just take the Pope out of context because he won’t agree with you:

Or you can make an appeal to history because you don’t understand what he is actually referring to:

The crux of the matter is Catholic teaching about just war, found in the Catechism:

Avoiding war

2307 The fifth commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.¹⁰⁴

2308 All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.
However, “as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.”¹⁰⁵

2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. the gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
– the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
– all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
– there must be serious prospects of success;
– the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. the power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the “just war” doctrine.
The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.

Christian Nationalists have no connection to these teachings and to the scholarship that undergirds them. They think other Christian leaders are barely disguised political operatives, just as they are. They’re going to be unhappy with the new pope until he’s out of office. Good.

I’ll leave you with this: