“The Violence Is Getting Worse and Worse”: Pope Leo and Making Peace in the Middle East

by Christy Yao Pelliccioni

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My 4-year-old and I were laying in bed enjoying some early morning snuggles when he asked me if there was a war anywhere in the world. At first I deflected the question and just said I hoped there wasn’t. But then I thought better of it and realized if I didn’t give him straight (while age-appropriate) answers, who would? 

I told him sadly there is a war going on but emphasized that it is nowhere near where we live, and Mommy and Daddy will always protect him. I told him we needed to pray for peace and he stood up on the bed and shouted “PEACE PLEASE PEACE PLEASE PEACE PLEASE!” until I told him it was time to get up and have some breakfast (at that point, Mama needed some coffee!)

At my son’s Catholic school, there is a big cardboard cutout of Pope Leo XIV. Like my son, Pope Leo is very much concerned with peace in the world.

For the past two weeks, Pope Leo has been putting an emphasis on peace and an end to the war in Iran. A March 15 Vatican News article reports that Pope Leo has called for dialogue between the nations involved in the conflict. A March 24 Reuters article tells of how Pope Leo called for a ceasefire, stating that, “hatred is increasing, and the violence is getting worse and worse.”

According to the Associated Press, this war has claimed more than 1,500 lives in Iran and over 1,000 in Lebanon. Millions have also been displaced in Iran and Lebanon. The Iran-allied group Hezbollah is firing rockets from Lebanon towards northern Israel, while Israel has launched an offensive against southern Lebanon in retaliation against Hezbollah. 

Most recently, in his Palm Sunday homily, Pope Leo emphasized Jesus as King of Peace. He echoed this phrase multiple times, with different points about how Jesus fills this title. Much media coverage reported the Pope said that God does not answer the prayers of those who support the war, which makes for good headlines, but I think is taking the homily out of context. Pope Leo quoted Isaiah 1:15: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”  I believe he was saying God will not answer prayers that call for violence, because violence is not part of God’s will.

I appreciate the Pope’s commitment to rejecting all perpetrators of violence and not singling out a particular nation or people. This reminder of peace comes at a time when, to be honest, I have been feeling weary of the greater peace movement. 

There are many legitimate criticisms to be made of the Israeli government, but all too often I have seen these criticisms infiltrated with anti-Semitism. My family is proud of our Jewish heritage on my husband’s side. For the past few years, I have felt uncomfortable taking my children to various peace events because of the anti-Semitism I have observed in the peace movement. 

This topic of course could be its own article, and it would perhaps be better written by someone other than me, since I in fact am not Jewish. But it is an unfortunate reality that I cannot write an article calling for peace in the Middle East without an aside about anti-Semitism. I appreciate the pope calling on all nations to be practitioners of peace.