Pope Leo praises Europe’s democracy, diverging once again from Trump
By MOTOKO RICH and MARK LANDLER
Pope Leo XIV delivered a lengthy tribute earlier this week to efforts to unify and democratize Europe since World War II, in what experts saw as a sweeping riposte to the Trump administration’s characterization of a Continent facing “civilizational erasure.”
In a speech in Metz, in northeastern France, Leo offered an alternative vision of a Europe that would “continue to flourish and to inspire the whole world.”
Describing an “increasingly uncivilized” world, Leo said that “Europe can help to break this cycle through the respect for others that it has learned to cultivate.” He also praised and quoted from the founding principles of the European Union, an institution frequently assailed by President Donald Trump.
On the last day of a four-day trip to France, the pope made a symbolic choice to speak at the Robert Schuman Center, a convention hall named after a Christian French statesman who led efforts to improve postwar cooperation between European nations and who is on the path to sainthood.
Leo did not name any particular leader or political party, but analysts read some of his more pointed remarks as critiques of the Trump administration, which — by assailing NATO, the European Union and European allies like Denmark — has scrambled the order that has governed European alliances since World War II.
Leo said that Europe, with its Christian heritage and history of cooperation, could push back against those who dismiss “the value of keeping one’s word” and those who “boast of lies and deceit.”
The pope’s comments represented “as much as a direct response to Trump that you can get today,” said Massimo Faggioli, a Catholic theologian at Villanova University, Leo’s alma mater.
For nearly two years, the Trump administration has berated Europe while two of the administration’s most prominent Catholics, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have urged European countries to accept far-right parties and erect stricter border controls.
In a separate speech Monday in Metz, the pope told religious leaders that “to invoke God’s name in order to justify violence or oppression is to profane that name.” The phrasing recalled remarks he made in March, when he said that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” Many followers and analysts took those comments to be directed at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who invoked Jesus Christ in asking Americans to pray for victory in the war with Iran.
The pope also appeared to address the anti-immigration policies that are increasingly promoted by right-wing parties in Europe, as well as several centrist governments. Noting the arrival of “so many men and women fleeing war and persecution,” Leo called on Europeans “to integrate them as if they were part of one’s own family.”
He added: “Over the past 80 years, Europe has amply demonstrated that it is possible to articulate divergent opinions, claims and interests through encounter rather than conflict.”
The pope’s speeches were the latest chapter in his efforts to balance criticism of Trump’s policies with avoiding an all-out dispute with the president. Since becoming pope in May 2025, Leo has clashed repeatedly with the Trump administration, while also trying to avoid being cast as the “anti-Trump.”
Flying to France on Friday, Leo pursed his lips and said nothing after a reporter asked him if he planned to speak with Trump about Iran. And during a visit to four countries in Africa in April, Leo told reporters that some of his remarks had been misinterpreted as criticism of the president.
“He always frames his messages universally,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a historian at the University of Notre Dame. He is not seeking “to correct or condemn,” she added, noting that Leo’s core themes of “peace, bridge building, human dignity” could be viewed as “all transcending any particular context.”
Still, the pope has used his time in France in ways that have quietly underscored his many divergences from Trump.
On Friday, at the headquarters of UNESCO — the United Nations cultural agency that the United States has twice withdrawn from under Trump’s leadership — Leo spoke about the “urgent need” to increase trust in multilateral organizations. He also visited a center that helps migrants integrate into French society.
“He knows what the valence and the resonance of these kinds of gestures and acts is,” said Miles Pattenden, a historian who studies the Catholic Church at Oxford University.
“If he really didn’t want the ambiguity of being seen to implicitly criticize particular leaders,” Pattenden added, the pope “could have avoided” visiting particular sites or making statements he knew might be interpreted as political commentary.
“His credibility is because he’s above the fray,” Pattenden said. “If he joins the fray by directly criticizing anyone, he kind of undermines that.”
But, Pattenden added, “it doesn’t stop people kind of hoping that he will.”
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