Crux reports:

Pope Leo XIV opened his first Holy Week as pontiff with a rebuke of those who pray for war, offering his condemnation mere days after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

Hegseth – who prefers to be called the “Secretary of War” – made his prayer during a recent Christian worship service at the Pentagon, attended by military and civilian workers.

Speaking during his March 29 Mass for Palm Sunday, which celebrates Jesus’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem mere days before the events of his passion, death, and resurrection and marks the official opening of Holy Week liturgies, the pope said: “[T]his is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war.”

“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war,” the pontiff said, “but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’.”

The service at the Pentagon was Hegseth’s first since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint military intervention in Iran, which Israel quickly expanded into Lebanon after Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters fired rockets into Israel, and has also spread to several other countries throughout the region.

During the livestreamed Pentagon service this past Wednesday, Hegseth uttered a prayer he said was penned by a military chaplain ahead of the U.S. operation that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” Hegseth said. [Continue reading…]