ListNook

umassmza Mar 22, 2026 +394

Maybe he could excommunicate Rubio and Vance? Send a message

394

Jabromosdef Mar 22, 2026 +147

Those MAGA Cubans would turn away from Christ if it meant reclaiming their “birthright.”

147

ComradeJohnS Mar 22, 2026 +30

I dont hear a reason against OP’s plan?

30

Jaded-Management-517 Mar 22, 2026 +25

I don't like when religious people think all can be forgiven in the afterlife when everything you do in this life and how you treat others should matter right now. Believing in Jesus or Yawheh or whoever doesn't count if you act and make decisions that harm innocent lives.

25

Kumquats_indeed Mar 22, 2026 +16

The Catholic Church's stance is that one is saved also by good works and not just by faith alone (which is more a belief among Calvinist and Evangelical Protestants). Though there are plenty of Catholics in the US who picked up that sort of thinking by cultural osmosis.

16

Trigger109 Mar 23, 2026 +6

Catholics believe that good works will come from a true faith because you’ll want to please God and live and love as closely to Christ as you can. If you don’t do good things then you don’t have real faith. It’s not that you can out work your sins. Some Protestants think this way but their teachings are that faith alone gives you the grace of God. If you look it up you’ll see both sides basically arguing the same thing so I never understood why they seem to disagree on it so much.

6

ankokudaishogun Mar 23, 2026 +2

Ask the protestant, they are the ones protesting. (the simple answer is "anti-catholic propaganda". yes, it was a thing in the past and it's still a thing though to a much minor degree)

2

PurpleSailor Mar 23, 2026 +4

JD seems to have only paid attention to the worst parts of Catholicism. He's has no awareness that he's shown about the whole taking care of your fellow man part of the church's teaching's. Even the old Popes second in command had to read him the riot act about that when he went to see the pope right before he passed away.

4

Jaded-Management-517 Mar 23, 2026 +8

For the Israelis I don't even know what to say. I'm Ashkenazi but wasn't raised Jewish but it seems like 90% of their religion is handing down traditions and translating torah but for a people who fear a jealous god they don't seem to fear committing murder in the middle east.

8

ankokudaishogun Mar 23, 2026 +1

> The Catholic Church's stance is that one is saved also by good works and not just by faith alone Catholic stance is that faith that doesn't produce works is empty at best and false at worst. If you truly have faith you *apply* that faith for others=do works.

1

AstroBullivant Mar 25, 2026 +1

I believe in doing what’s right for its own purpose, not for spiritual salvation. Salvation is not transactional, but rather an act of grace. If salvation were transactional, no human today would be saved. The only religion that I’ve seen that teaches salvation by faith alone teaches that such saving faith is in events involving core moral principles, so such a faith is inherently a faith in moral principles and those religious people believe that salvation is not transactional.

1

Capable_Kiwi2514 Mar 23, 2026

Well there's a few facets to the Catholic perspective: 1--forgiveness of sins does not imply lack of punishment for said sins. The worse the life, the longer the temporal punishment in the afterlife (I.e. purgatory). 2-- While Confession always "works" from the side of the priest as a way to forgive sins, the psychological and spiritual self of the repentant can be too damaged to accept that forgiveness, in which case the sacrément fails. This why the church cautions against relying on deathbed confessions as a way to avoid being damned. Essentially a "if you really cared you wouldn't have relied on a sacrement to save you at the last minute" kind of deal.

0

ankokudaishogun Mar 23, 2026 +1

> The worse the life, the longer the temporal punishment in the afterlife (I.e. purgatory). That's not precise tho': Purgatory is *purification*, not *punishment*. ...though the difference is more of a theologian distinction to lay discourse.

1

Capable_Kiwi2514 Mar 23, 2026 +1

In Roman Catholocism, purgatory is temporal punishment. The purification and the punishment are the same thing. One causes the other.

1

Consistent-Throat130 Mar 22, 2026

They wouldn't be religious people if they were willing to figure out morality for themselves.

0

McortezLSU Mar 23, 2026 +1

You had me at excommunicating vance and rubio already, you dont need to sell it to me further.

1

k_realtor Mar 25, 2026 +1

Jesus might be bigger for MAGA up there but down on the ground, the MAGA version of Jesus is different and doesn’t trust the Pope or believe in the true teachings because it’s sounds like liberal, peace loving nonsense. MAGA’s version of Jesus is basically a guy with a rifle pointed at everyone that isn’t a Trump Supporter.

1

visawrites Mar 22, 2026 -6

Generalizing a group of people because you don’t agree with their politics isn’t as cool as you think it is. Just kinda sounds racist and pathetic.

-6

Jabromosdef Mar 23, 2026 +11

No. You’ve got me all wrong. I don’t think they’re pieces of shit because they’re Cuban. I think they’re pieces of shit because they’re fascist scum bags hurting their own people. I think they’re scum bags because people like Rubio and Ted Cruz call communism evil when their families were run off by Batista and his fascists. Now we are killing Cubans to reclaim the island for corporate interest. What’s pathetic is throwing “racist” around because you don’t like what I said or that I’m critical of a wealthy group of people using their power and influence to murder innocent Cubans. When people are dying, f*** you and your “politics.”

11

Kumquats_indeed Mar 22, 2026 +20

Since the Vatican 2 reforms in the 60s, the pope doesn't excommunicate lay people. Now it's basically only used to defrock clergy who are preaching heretical doctrine, improperly conducting sacraments to an egregious degree, or have been appointed without the Vatican's approval.

20

GatoLibre Mar 23, 2026 +9

Vance killed the last guy so I dunno.

9

Trigger109 Mar 23, 2026 +2

It’s interesting that Vance converted to Catholicism from Evangelical in 2019. Evangelical seems much more useful for him since MAGA hate Catholics.

2

6gv5 Mar 23, 2026 +1

Never going to happen as it would undermine the Christian Church itself and its perceived power after people realize that absolutely nothing would happen as a result of the excommunication.

1

AstroBullivant Mar 23, 2026

An excommunication from the Pope over a war in the Middle East that is politically unpleasant for the Vatican? Honestly, that sounds extremely Medieval.

0

Ongr Mar 22, 2026 +90

The Pope has been called 'not a Christian' by MAGA cultists lmao.

90

Kumquats_indeed Mar 22, 2026 +29

Well most of them are some sort of Protestant, so vehemently disagreeing with the pope is a several-century-old tradition for them. And the Catholics among them tend to be Trad Caths, who think every pope since the 60s has been an antipope.

29

PigFarmer1 Mar 22, 2026 +34

They would say the same thing about *Christ*.

34

clashrendar Mar 22, 2026 +15

MAGA cultists aren't christians. Never were. They are the people Christ would say 'get away from me, I never knew you'.

15

MedicalHair69 Mar 22, 2026 +167

Scandal feels like such a strange word choice here. It feels like the word scandal has always had a salacious connotation when used in especially American media. Never seen it used in a context of describing war before.

167

ArsenalofDemocracy27 Mar 22, 2026 +128

I feel like he’s referring to the motive of the conflict rather than the conflict itself

128

LongjumpingElk4099 Mar 22, 2026 +43

If that is the case Leo is funnily enough 100% right

43

Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ Mar 22, 2026 +16

Not really, political scandals are frequently not salacious, think like the Watergate scandal. Given how and why this war started I'd say it's fair to call it a scandal.

16

dpman48 Mar 23, 2026 +13

Scandal has a specific meaning in the Catholic Church. Catholics are called NOT to cause scandal for the church. The pope saying this, is the pope telling practicing Catholics that supporting this war is antithetical to practicing Catholicism, and is a VERY clear callout to Catholic members of the administration. This isn’t the best or most detailed answer but as a Catholic the messaging was VERY obvious to me from the headline.

13

AnAngeryGoose Mar 22, 2026 +25

“Scandal” has a harsher connotation in Catholic jargon. It’s the sin of creating laws, social structures, or a public attitude that causes others to join you in sin.

25

wildweaver32 Mar 22, 2026 +23

If you accept that the war started for no reason outside of Trump using it to distract us learning about what he did to kids in the Epstein file than scandal works just fine.

23

[deleted] Mar 22, 2026

[deleted]

0

wildweaver32 Mar 22, 2026 -1

And in your mind is that why Trump the President of the USA decided to go to war with Iran?

-1

scenr0 Mar 22, 2026

Well... yeah they're allies with Isreal and they seem pretty buddy buddy about destroying Iran right now.

0

wildweaver32 Mar 22, 2026 -1

Israel has wanted to destroy Iran for a very long time. No other US President has joined them in that matter. Neither did Trump. The change? The Epstein files and all the stuff coming out that Trump did in them. Which kind of shows the real reason Trump joined Israel to attack Iran. And why they did it with no plan, no goal, and no strategy to end it. He just wanted the distraction and considering we are here talking about this instead of what he did to that 13 yo shows it worked. For the most part.

-1

scenr0 Mar 22, 2026

Wasn't the US fighting with Iran in the 80s? Something about a hostage crisis and attacks on an American ship. It's not a new element. However using this war as a smoke screen to whats really going on isn't surprising.

0

wildweaver32 Mar 23, 2026

Yeah. They attacked a US ship, and the US retaliated. Operation Praying Mantis, right? It had a cause. They hit one of the US ships with mines. It had a goal. Hit their navy and make them think twice about attacking our ships again. I don't recall them doing it since. Which is a world different than the current situation. Where the US/Israel killed Irans leader, and a bunch of other leaders, and the citiy for no real reason. So there isn't even anything Iran could have agreed to to stop even if they wanted to. The US/Israel didn't have a real goal in mind beyond kill a bunch of people, and no strategy to end it. And now things keep escalating. And now the US can't even just walk away because Iran could keep restricting access of oil for US and US allies. It's a shit show. And the crazy part is it could get worse. BUT on the flip side, it is a solid distraction for Trump with the Epstein files.

0

scenr0 Mar 23, 2026

Damn dude. Triggered you big time, huh?

0

wildweaver32 Mar 23, 2026

No? Do you think because someone took the time to prove you wrong they were triggered?

0

Antique_Eye_3200 Mar 22, 2026 +10

Scandal is often associated with salacious contexts, but just as often with [political] *corruption*. I suspect the Pope means the latter, in which case he is dead on.

10

DearLeader420 Mar 23, 2026 +5

The term "scandal" has a slightly different meaning in explicitly Christian contexts. It's more of an idea like, doing something that would cause people to turn away from the faith because of your actions.

5

Shot-Ad-1597 Mar 22, 2026 +35

Yup. https://youtube.com/shorts/C3gz9am0bRI?si=tYP2I9_tigWLXZsg

35

snower88 Mar 23, 2026 +4

Waiting for trump to call the pope all the nasty labels and threaten him.

4

CapitalRegular4157 Mar 25, 2026 +1

That would be a poor choice.... I bet he does it. Get your popcorn ready.

1

spacebarstool Mar 22, 2026 +35

The Catholic Church definitely knows what a scandal is.

35

Gnadolin Mar 22, 2026 +53

I actually forgot we have a pope.

53

WeakCartographer7826 Mar 22, 2026 -12

To most people the pope is an irrelevant person. They're also pretty good at covering up child abuse.

-12

ReputationRecent3391 Mar 22, 2026 +76

There's like a billion and a half Catholics. Whether you want to dismiss them or not, their politics are relevant to the world community. There are millions of americans who decide how they feel about this war based specifically on what Hat Dude says.

76

OsmeOxys Mar 22, 2026 +9

>There are millions of americans who decide how they feel about this war based specifically on what Hat Dude says. Not so sure about that one. Surely some, but it's pretty well established that the republicans consider trump to be a higher religious authority in American Catholicism than the Pope is at this point. He's just a woke liberal Communist demon-rat in a fancy hat to them. I mean... F***. He and pence were claiming to be literal prophets communicating with God.

9

ReputationRecent3391 Mar 22, 2026 +23

You are confusing catholics with other christians, i think. Midwest liberal catholics are a huge voting presence. Catholics do not generally behave like methodists/baptists/evangelicals and leave space in their worldview for things like....scientific facts.

23

OsmeOxys Mar 22, 2026 +3

>Midwest liberal catholics I'm specifically commenting on Republican Catholics. More liberal leaning Catholics aren't particularly relevant here since they don't follow Trump and we're likely against the war in the first place. The Republican ones that I know personally or know of... They'll argue all day against what the Pope has said, especially if it upsets their dear leader, but they'll never say the words "I disagree with the Pope on religious matters". Guess they're banking on God being a lawyer.

3

WeakCartographer7826 Mar 22, 2026 +2

Agreed. Also within the church people disagree on certain stances the pope takes in addition to war like gay marriage.

2

WeakCartographer7826 Mar 22, 2026 +1

I was going off the original comment. Most ppl aren't thinking about this dude on a daily basis.

1

boeingman737 Mar 22, 2026 +12

It doesn’t matter what the average person thinks, policy and global outcomes are made by decision makers. And the Vatican is internationally recognized, has a secretary of state, UN observer status, and diplomatic passports. When the pope arrives in a foreign country politicians listen. Just look at Pope Francis visit in Washington which triggered a joint session of congress with even some justices present. That type of influence matters

12

WeakCartographer7826 Mar 22, 2026

Again. You're arguing against something I'm not even attempting to argue. Most ppl aren't thinking about this dude and then when we're forced to hear his (usually) outdated and regressive opinions we're like "oh yeah, f***, this dude does influence a lot of ppl" But I think most ppl go about their day very happy to not think about this dude. But yes, you're 💯 that his presence and opinions are important to a lot of people. And they may affect me. But I still don't think about him.

0

Notnotstrange Mar 22, 2026 +1

If I could reply with a gif, it would be of Don Draper saying, “I don’t think about you at all.”

1

WrexyWrex Mar 22, 2026 +16

The Vatican is the most crowded tourist destination in the world [https://www.travelandleisure.com/vatican-city-most-overcrowded-destination-11779123](https://www.travelandleisure.com/vatican-city-most-overcrowded-destination-11779123) How you can say he's irrelevant so confidently like you know what people are thinking is beyond me

16

WeakCartographer7826 Mar 22, 2026 -7

There are more non Catholic people in the world than Catholic people. So by basic math, he's irrelevant to most people. Not, he's irrelevant to everyone. Edit: people also visit the Vatican to other reasons than the pope. You know, like it's a cool place with crazy architecture and art.

-7

WrexyWrex Mar 22, 2026 +12

Another aspect is if Trump didn't win the churchgoer votes he would not have won a single demographic of people What the pope says right now is very important

12

WeakCartographer7826 Mar 22, 2026 +2

It is. And it's unfortunate. But as I said before and below, I still don't think most ppl wake up and go, let's see what the pope said yesterday. Also what he says is typically pretty predictable. We only hear about it when he makes comments like these and are forced to pay attention.

2

Butthole2theStarz Mar 22, 2026 +2

The fact that it makes the news whenever the pope says something kind of invalidates the amount of people thinking about him on a daily basis or not. They will be reminded of him because his word gets published like any other world leader. Do you think about Macron on a daily basis?

2

WeakCartographer7826 Mar 22, 2026 +1

Plenty of people read the news and don't read about the pope. I don't think about macron. In fact, it's possible to see a headline and not care about it. Do you think about kim Kardashian on a daily basis? She's in the news all the time.

1

WrexyWrex Mar 22, 2026 -3

Half of the Americas are catholics, people with influence your intent was that catholics are a minority, and they are clearly not in the power struggle the world is going through

-3

static-klingon Mar 22, 2026

Yeah, he’s actually a world leader.

0

fedroxx Mar 22, 2026 -4

Easy to do. Usually they're covering up child r***.

-4

denNISI Mar 22, 2026 +2

Lots of child "bone" alters beneath major churches!

2

jxj24 Mar 22, 2026 +4

Maybe he can call in a few favors and get some [smiting](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/smite-god-far-side.jpg) done.

4

Top5hottest Mar 22, 2026 +4

Trump vs The Pope. Cant wait to hear the mental gymnastics from the magas on this one.

4

VeraLumina Mar 22, 2026 -4

And this is why the Church will never truly be the Church of Jesus. They cannot bring themselves to turn over the tables in the Temple; to risk pissing off the world coming down on the side of radical condemnation. Until that happens (I don’t know, maybe Leo decides to throw caution to the wind starting with excommunicating that fraud, JD Vance), hard headed Catholics who must see and hear unequivocal spiritual and moral condemnation thunder from the Altar, will continue their defense of this war and other matters.

-4

Top5hottest Mar 22, 2026 -2

There are no consequences except on your death bed i suppose.

-2

Cynical_Classicist Mar 22, 2026 +11

Weird seeing the Pope take this stance while the US government is treating this horror as a crusade.

11

BujuBad Mar 22, 2026 +11

Maybe he needs to speak out even more powerfully and directly contradict the insane rapture theory being employed by the US military.

11

StoreRevolutionary70 Mar 23, 2026 +2

Any war is a scandal for humanity.

2

phoneacct696969 Mar 22, 2026 +3

Kinda putting it lightly, no?

3

BabylonianWeeb Mar 22, 2026 +4

Israel has killed way more Christians last year than Islamic countries combined btw.

4

OriginalDaddy Mar 23, 2026 +2

Yet the “Christians” continue to celebrate the decisions made by his Mangoness…

2

physicsking Mar 22, 2026 +1

Can he just go ahead and denounce and excommunicate the leadership please? Would be helpful if he akins them to some type of devilery...

1

Greybeard111 Mar 22, 2026 +1

Took his time to comment. Even if it was pretty mild.

1

PigFarmer1 Mar 22, 2026 +1

JD Vance can't be happy about this... lol

1

BeautifulBand4831 Mar 22, 2026 +1

No a scandal is the Catholic church kidnapping native children to indoctrinate then while abusing and killing them .

1

clashrendar Mar 22, 2026 +1

And he's 100% correct.

1

ShakesDontBreak Mar 23, 2026 +1

Intentions during mass state to pray for peace and for these wars to end. Hopefully leaders get the memo.

1

Cogent_warrior Mar 23, 2026 +1

Talk about irony. The man's very followers are partially responsible for this charade.

1

Bunch_of_Shit Mar 23, 2026 +1

Lmao maga hates this guy. “how dare he call trump saving Iran and America a scandal. woke radical Marxist Democrat pope!”

1

Single_Living9910 Mar 23, 2026 +1

If prayer is so powerful, pray the bad guys away already

1

MusicianNo2699 Mar 23, 2026 +1

I love the fact that he is an American pope, haha!!

1

Liesthroughisteeth Mar 23, 2026 +1

As are the leaders of countries like Iran and Afghanistan.

1

Jehooveremover Mar 24, 2026

And USA and Israel.

0

Liesthroughisteeth Mar 25, 2026

Nobody oppresses women and children, and gleefully lops off heads indiscriminately like the middle east and their radicalized religious. Good try though. :)

0

Jehooveremover Mar 25, 2026 +1

Care to try again? Bombs dropped on school kids don't count? Blown up hospitals? Countries invaded on false premises of WMDs?Women being denied basic healthcare? Child r*** cases being ignored? Manipulation and overthrow of countless foreign governments? Calling the president the annointed one of god sent to light the signal fire in Iran? The USA and Israel together are responsible for the slaughter of millions. They both heavily deserve the Sodom and Gommorah level day of judgement they are rapidly spiralling towards.

1

mechlabs Mar 26, 2026 +1

Alucard: Sends another carrier pigeon.

1

Maureen_Johma Mar 22, 2026 -4

How many Holy Wars have the Catholic Church done?

-4

Old_Channel44 Mar 22, 2026 -5

The real scandal is telling people about a made up being so you can profit off of it and let priests hide their “sins” instead of calling them “crimes”

-5

imoftendisgruntled Mar 22, 2026 +14

Speaking as an atheist, you’re barking up the wrong tree. People want to have faith. Fighting against human nature is a pointless war. Focus on making those who want to hold a religion as good a force for humanity as they can be within their belief system. Leo is a good pope, even if his religion is misguided. Denying that makes you no better than any other religion. Atheists ought to be humanists first.

14

No_Tone1704 Mar 22, 2026 +3

Thank you Imof TenDisgruntled. Well said. I’m an atheist as well but I do get tired of nonbelievers trying to convert. Did it work for them when Christians tried it on them? It didn’t for me.

3

Jae_Rides_Apes Mar 22, 2026 -2

Hear hear. F*** the Vatican.

-2

SpeshellED Mar 22, 2026 +1

Stupid people do stupid things. The Cheeto-PEDO and his crew take stupid to a new level. " This is the biggest stupid ever" No one has seen this big a stupid ! "

1

TheFutureIsAFriend Mar 22, 2026 -4

Almost like allowing the clergy to sexually abuse children for centuries with no accountability..... Both are awful. More than awful. How many lives were destroyed by the Vatican's pedo shell game?

-4

DiverBackground6038 Mar 22, 2026 -8

Hey pope...which candidate did your leadership encourage its members overwhelmingly support in the last election because of one issue?

-8

Fluffy_Judge_581 Mar 22, 2026 +22

They actual supported nobody also he called republicans pro death.

22

DiverBackground6038 Mar 22, 2026

I said leadership ...not him. This pope has been fine, but the American bishops..his leadership team. Who did they support? What issue was forefront for American Catholics?

0

[deleted] Mar 22, 2026 -16

[removed]

-16

Hattai Mar 22, 2026 +9

So why Trump isn't there ?

9

[deleted] Mar 22, 2026 +1

[removed]

1

imoftendisgruntled Mar 22, 2026 +6

Right-wing “Christians” aren’t Catholics. You can’t be both.

6

MrShigsy89 Mar 22, 2026 -4

He would be a good candidate for the next pope. A paedophile and thinks he is important.

-4

CryptoNoob-BRLN Mar 23, 2026 +1

No you don’t get it, it was the Pope who talked. Not Trump.

1

Minimum_Name9115 Mar 22, 2026

Clean your own house first, hypocrite. Your exactly what Jesus protested. Corrupt clergy!!

0

ImaginationToForm2 Mar 22, 2026 -3

Scandal, like a religion. Obey Us Or Go To Hell.

-3

keninsd Mar 23, 2026

"Pope Leo calls war in Middle East a 'scandal' to humanity" But, his entire immoral organization that is still harboring pedophile priests, isn't?

0

ScientistArtistic917 Mar 22, 2026

It's a crime not a scandal

0

RJfreelove Mar 23, 2026

Tell him to shut up and pray about it

0

chill_stoner_0604 Mar 22, 2026 -11

Yea. Only the catholic church is allowed to attempt genocide in the middle east

-11

namotous Mar 22, 2026 -2

Yeah go talk to the ones who started it, bud! I can’t do anything about it!

-2

CarrieDurst Mar 22, 2026 -9

This misogynistic homophobe is sometimes right

-9

No_Tone1704 Mar 22, 2026 -1

Is that what he is?

-1

USDXBS Mar 22, 2026 -1

And he knows about covering up pedophile scandals.

-1

Alb_ Mar 23, 2026 -1

For once, I'd like to see some RAGE in a pope. Not these soft words of "pwease stawp fighting 😢" Throw some venom, b****.

-1

KeanuSleevez Mar 23, 2026 -1

It’s a acandal huh, well the Vatican started all this guff when they’re where all in on The Crusades. People, glass houses, etc

-1

PatientBaker7172 Mar 22, 2026 -6

Two ways to frame 9/11 1. Sadness and in our prayer for the 3000 American lives lost including brave-heroic firefighters who lost their lives 2. Frame America solely as an oppressive colonial state and manipulating progressives to end America https://x.com/i/status/2032434751949168819

-6

Pope Leo calls war in Middle East a 'scandal' to humanity

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