“No interest can be worth the lives of the weakest, of children, of families; no cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood.” Pope Leo XIV addressed these words to bishops of the Synod of the Church of Baghdad of the Chaldeans (Iraq), gathered in Rome from April 9 to 12 to elect a new patriarch for their Church.
“Your mission is great: to proclaim the Risen Christ even in contexts of death, to be a living presence of faith and charity, to keep hope alive where it seems to be fading,” the Pope exhorted them.
He made these comments in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, in which Iraq has been struck by attacks from both sides — Iran targeting military bases of the United States, and the United States bombing local pro-Iran groups.
Most of Pope Leo XIV’s discourse addressed the ecclesial context of the Synod and the pastoral profile he hoped to see in a new patriarch. However, his comments on war in particular have universal significance today.
A sign of hope
“Brothers, you are signs of hope in a world marked by senseless and inhuman violence,” he told the bishops. He lamented that this conflict, “driven by greed and hatred, is spreading with ferocity precisely in the lands that saw salvation arise, in the sacred places of the Christian East.”
This, he explained, constitutes a desecration “by the blasphemy of war and the brutality of business, with no regard for people’s lives.” The forces at war consider the casualties of war “at best a collateral effect of their own interests,” he lamented.
While the Pope doesn’t explore the complex and multiple causes of conflict in the region, he clarifies that “no interest can be worth the lives of the weakest, of children, of families; no cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood.”
Called to be peacemakers
Remarks such as these have drawn the ire of President Trump in recent days. Nonetheless, Pope Leo XIV has repeatedly anchored these remarks in the Gospel message, targeted at all armed conflict and all world leaders, not just the US/Israeli war with Iran.
In this vein, he told the Chaldean Catholic bishops that they are “called to be tireless peacemakers in the name of Jesus, help us to proclaim clearly that God does not bless any conflict.” It is their call “to cry out to the world that whoever is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, never stands with those who yesterday wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
The Church must “remind everyone that it is not military actions that will create spaces of freedom or times of peace, but only the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.”
A new patriarch, familiar with facing conflict
At the end of their Synod, the Chaldean bishops elected a successor to Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, who retired in March 2026 at the age of 76. The new Patriarch is Iraqi Archbishop Amel Shamon Nona, aged 58. He has taken the name Patriarch Paul III Nona. His most recent position was in Australia as Archbishop of the Chaldeans in Sydney, where his flock was the large Chaldean diaspora in that country.
Previously, he was the archbishop of Mosul, from 2009 to 2015. He was there when the ISIL radical Islamic group took the city in 2014. At that time, most of the Christians fled the city into exile.
