Can one ask for God’s blessing in prayer for a war that spares no defenseless or blameless civilians? Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth—renamed Secretary of War by the current U.S. administration’s thirst for power—believes it is both possible and necessary.
Since the start of the war against Iran, which the United States is waging alongside Netanyahu’s Israel with the support of the country’s religious right, Hegseth’s rhetoric has become increasingly violent. Hegseth’s fervent and emphatic words suggest that the United States, not Iran as wished by President trump, has returned to the «Stone Age.»
Along with the United States, Secretary Hegseth is also sending the Christian God back to the Stone Age by involving him in a war that has nothing to do with the God of Jesus as described in the Gospels. Mr. Hegseth invokes «God’s providence» to protect American troops and urges all citizens «to pray every day, on bended knee, with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus.»
There could be no greater distance from the words of Jesus: «You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven» (Matthew 5:43-45). The Christianity of Jesus is clearly at odds with that of Mr. Hegseth; indeed, it is its most radical negation.
Mr. Hegseth’s God is one fashioned by human hands—the idol par excellence. The idol feeds on violence, generates hatred, and demands the elimination of everything that stands in the way of its voracious desire for unchallenged power. Jesus’ God has opposed this misuse of God’s name once and for all—exactly during these days between the Cross and the Resurrection, when Jesus surrendered himself to the deadly power of violence among human beings so that everyone may be saved from it, even those we call “enemies”: «Indeed, through this act, Jesus purifies not only our image of God — from the idolatry and blasphemy that have distorted it — but also our image of humanity. For we tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared. In contrast, as true God and true man, Christ offers us the example of self-giving, service and love.» (Pope Leo XIV).
The Cross dismantles the logic that Mr. Hegseth would like to subject the Christian name of God to: no one is God’s enemy, not even the one who puts him to death. «On the cross, the imperialist occupation of the world is disrupted from within, and the violence that has been the law until now is unmasked. The poor, imprisoned, rejected Messiah descends into the darkness of death, yet in doing so, he brings a new creation to light» (Pope Leo XIV).
It is clear that the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church strongly opposes Mr. Hegseth’s logic of violence justified in the name of God.
In his Good Thursday homily, Pope Leo said, «Jesus’s journey reveals to us that the willingness to lose oneself, to empty oneself, is not an end in itself but a condition for encounter and intimacy. Love is true only when it is unguarded; it requires little fuss, no ostentation, and gently cherishes weakness and vulnerability. Throughout history, we know that mission has often been distorted by a desire for domination, which is entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ. Consequently, it is now a priority to remember that good cannot come from the abuse of power, neither in the pastoral sphere nor in the social and political spheres.»
According to Pope Leo, no violence, hatred, or war can be justified in the name of Jesus’ God, who reveals the true nature of the idol by experiencing its violence in his own body and declaring such violence unworthy of God and every human being.
