In an extraordinary departure from typical diplomatic Vatican rhetoric, Pope Leo has issued a blistering rebuke of global leaders who pour billions of dollars into military conflicts, arguing that the entire global order is currently being exploited and destabilized by a small group of authoritarian rulers. The unusually harsh comments came during the pontiff’s tour of Cameroon’s Northwest region, an area that has been torn apart by a nearly 10-year-long separatist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents.
Standing before crowds gathered at a cathedral in Bamenda, the heart of Cameroon’s conflict zone, Pope Leo called out actors who fuel the region’s ongoing violence, noting that external and local groups that extract natural resources from the affected land often funnel a large share of their profits into weapons, prolonging a never-ending cycle of violence and collapse. “Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilisation and death,” he told the assembled audience of community members, clergy and displaced residents.
The pontiff expanded his critique beyond Cameroon’s local conflict to the global stage, condemning the misplaced global priorities that prioritize destruction over human development. “The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” he said. He added that it is a moral travesty that leaders “turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.” He also called out actors who “manipulate the very name of God” to justify their violent, self-serving actions.
Pope Leo’s comments come just days after a high-profile public conflict with former U.S. President Donald Trump, sparked by the pontiff’s vocal opposition to the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation in Iran. Pope Leo had previously raised alarm over Trump’s stark threat that “a whole civilisation will die” if Iran refused to meet U.S. demands to end the war and reopen the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz. This is not the first public disagreement between the two men: since his election as the first U.S.-born pope in history last year, Pope Leo has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s hardline approach to immigration policy, prompting a sharp rebuke from Trump on his TruthSocial platform, where the former president wrote “Leo should get his act together as Pope.”
The Cameroon visit is a key stop on Pope Leo’s multi-country African tour, which will include 11 stops across four nations. This marks only his second major international visit since taking office last year, a schedule that underscores the growing strategic and demographic importance of the Catholic Church in Africa. Recent 2024 demographic data shows that Africa is home to roughly 288 million Catholics, accounting for more than one-fifth of the entire global Catholic population – a share that continues to grow steadily year over year.