Pope Leo rejects Trump invitation to join Gaza ‘Board of Peace’
Pope Leo XIV, the U.S.-born Pontiff, has formally declined U.S. President Trump’s invitation for the Vatican to join his so-called Peace Board for Gaza.
According to Trump, the board—which he will head—will oversee Gaza’s governance and reconstruction. Trump has said that the board may later address other global conflicts under his leadership.
But in delivering the Pope’s firm “no,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, insisted that “at the international level it should above all be the U.N. that manages these crisis situations,” not a U.S.-led board.
Responding to the Pope’s decision, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the decision “deeply unfortunate.” In spite of the fact that not a single Palestinian has been invited to serve on the board, Leavitt said, “I don’t think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial.”
Earlier this month, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was asked what he thought of Trump’s board. He said, “I think it is a colonialist operation: others deciding for the Palestinians.” Noting that Trump has said that permanent membership on the board carries a $1 billion price tag, Pizzaballa said, “I’ve never had a billion, but above all this is not the Church’s task: It is the sacraments, the dignity of the person.”
Asked by Mondoweiss to comment, Rifat Kassis, General Coordinator of Kairos Palestine—the broadest ecumenical movement of Palestinian Christians—echoed Pizzaballa’s charge. Kassis said, “The Pope’s rejection of the proposed council signals a clear principle: neither global powers nor global foreign institutions can claim to build peace while silencing the Palestinians whose land and future are at stake.”
Kassis continued, “By standing with the warning first voiced by Pizzaballa, the Pope recognized that the living voice of the local Church cannot be bypassed. Pope Leo affirmed both the indispensable authority of Christians rooted in the Holy Land and the non-negotiable Palestinian right to self-determination.”
Leo’s response to Trump’s invitation marks still another break from the president and his policies.
The Pope has consistently criticized the government’s harsh treatment of immigrants, calling it “extremely disrespectful” and “inhuman.” Last year, Leo called on Trump not to break the transatlantic alliance, charging that Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine was “a huge change in what was for many, many years a true alliance between Europe and the United States.” Last November, in answer to reporters’ questions, Leo commented on the government sending warships to the coast of Venezuela. According to Reuters, “[The Pope] said the role of armed forces should be ‘to defend peace,’ whereas Trump’s move was ‘increasing tension.’” Leo added, “We won’t win with violence, the (right) thing is to seek dialogue and a correct way to find solutions to the problems that can exist in a country.”
As Trump prepared to host the Peace Board’s inaugural meeting in D.C. this week, Priests Against Genocide USA—an international network that includes 2,200 priests from 58 countries, along with 22 bishops and archbishops and two cardinals—penned an open letter to Paul Coakley, Catholic Archbishop of Oklahoma City, who is serving as the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Citing the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, the network’s Steering Committee writes, “We humbly appeal to the Catholic leadership in the United State to speak with moral clarity and to bear courageous witness to peace and justice.”
The letter continues, “[T]he convening of President Trump’s so-called ‘Board of Peace’… underscores the urgent need for our Church’s prophetic witness.” They ask Archbishop Coakley “to help form the conscience of our nation regarding this so-called Board of Peace and to inspire all people of goodwill to become instruments of authentic peace. The Gospels teach that peace is the fruit of truth and justice. Yet any claim to peace becomes hollow when Palestinian voices are excluded from decision-making, when systemic injustice is normalized, and when fundamental rights of the oppressed are subordinated to profit-driven interests.”