Pope Leo XIV declared on Saturday June 6, 2026, aboard the papal plane to Madrid, that the war in Iran does not qualify as a just war under Catholic teaching, directly and publicly contradicting the White House for the first time on the theology of the conflict.
“I believe it has been already declared clearly,” Leo told journalists flying with him to Spain for a six-day pastoral visit. “There is no just war there.”
The remark was a pointed response to Vice President JD Vance, who invoked just war theory in April to justify the US military campaign against Iran. Vance had previously warned the pope to “be careful” when discussing theology, saying: “When the pope says that God is never on the side of people who wield the sword, there is more than a 1,000 year tradition of just war theory.” President Donald Trump responded to Leo’s latest remarks on Truth Social, once again calling the pontiff “weak” on war.
This is not the first time Leo has spoken out. Since the conflict began in February, the first American pope in history has issued repeated appeals for peace and dialogue, drawing repeated attacks from the Trump administration. The clash has produced one of the most unusual diplomatic fault lines of the modern era: an American president at war with an American pope over the morality of an American war.
Leo also addressed Ukraine aboard the plane, expressing alarm after Putin recently refused to meet with Zelensky. “I am worried for Ukraine,” he said. “We must really push to reach an end to the conflict and find a solution. Already four years and a half have passed.”
The pope has made overcoming the theory of the just war one of the central themes of a cardinal summit he has convened at the Vatican for June 26 and 27, signaling that his position on Iran and Ukraine is not a passing comment but a formal theological stance the Church intends to develop.