(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, admonished U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s comments invoking the name of God as a divine blessing on the ongoing U.S. and Israeli aggressions against Iran.
In a press briefing last week, Hegseth read the opening verses of Psalm 144, including, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.” The U.S. defense secretary, who authored a book called “American Crusade,” also stated during a CBS News interview that the “providence of our almighty God” was protecting American troops involved in the conflict.
Asked about Hegseth’s comments during a Sunday webinar on the topic of the wars ravaging the Middle East, Cardinal Pizzaballa responded with candor: “The abuse and manipulation of God’s name to justify this and any other war is the gravest sin we can commit at this time,” he said, according to Vatican News.
“War”, he added, “is first and foremost political and has very material interests, like most wars. We must do everything we can to leave no room for this pseudo-religious language, which speaks not of God, but of ourselves.”
Those who bring religion into the war ‘exploit the name of God’
During the online interview with the International Oasis Foundation, the Franciscan cardinal said that “as believers … we need to say that no, there are no new crusades. If God is present in this war, He is among those who are dying, who are suffering, who are in pain, who are oppressed in various ways, throughout the Middle East.”
The senior Catholic authority in the war-torn region said he was “not saying that on one side or the other this conflict has religious connotations, but there are manipulations: those who wish to bring religion into it exploit the name of God.”
Pizzaballa’s sentiments and judgments are consistent with the voice of Pope Leo XIV, who on the same day demanded that those responsible for the ongoing wars “Cease the fire! Let paths of dialogue be reopened!”
Speaking “in the name of the Christians of the Middle East,” the pontiff admonished, “Violence can never lead to the justice, the stability and the peace that peoples are awaiting.”
Turning to the faithful after the recitation of the Angelus prayer, Leo XIV recalled “the peoples of the Middle East have been suffering the atrocious violence of war” for two weeks.
“Thousands of innocent people have been killed, and many others have been forced to abandon their homes. I renew my prayerful closeness to all those who have lost their loved ones in the attacks that have struck schools, hospitals, and residential areas,” he added.
People ‘living in sewers’ in Gaza, West Bank situation ‘deteriorating’
During the Sunday webinar, Cardinal Pizzaballa also addressed the ongoing crisis in Gaza and the escalating Israeli settler terrorist attacks against indigenous Palestinians, including Christians, lamenting that these dire humanitarian situations were no longer being discussed.
“There is no longer a problem of hunger, but there are still two million displaced people, deprived of everything; 80% of the Strip is still destroyed, and no reconstruction has begun; 36 hospitals are partially operational, but medicines are lacking, even basic antibiotics,” the prelate explained.
“People are literally living in the sewers; the images cannot convey the smells. It is impossible to understand how and when this dramatic situation will be resolved: the Board of Peace has not yet understood what it should do,” the cardinal said.
“And in any case, it is a sort of vicious circle: If Hamas does not hand over its weapons, Israel will not withdraw; Hamas will not hand over its weapons unless Israel withdraws. Everything remains at a standstill,” Pizzaballa denounced.
Turning his attention to the West Bank, he described “the situation is deteriorating constantly: almost every day there are attacks by settlers on Palestinian villages. There are now almost a thousand checkpoints; Palestinians still struggle to move about, and permits have largely been cancelled.”
READ: Holy Land patriarch decries Israel’s devastation of Gaza, rising settler attacks in West Bank
Israeli officials corroborate, condemn ‘Jewish terror’ in West Bank
Corroborating the cardinal’s concerns are current and former Israeli government officials who have denounced both the ongoing “Jewish terror” being inflicted upon the Palestinian people by Israeli settlers and the Israeli government that looks the other way or even protects the criminal activities of radical Jewish terrorists.
Earlier this week, Israeli MK Meirav Cohen delivered a speech in the Knesset condemning the “Jewish terror” that has been escalating in the West Bank, where “villages are being attacked, communities are being driven from their homes with premeditation, sheep are being slaughtered, orchards are being burned, (and) people are attacked for the mere fact of being Arab.”
Israeli MK Meirav Cohen delivered a powerful speech in the Knesset on settler terrorism in the West Bank: “This is terror, and it is Jewish terror….. It’s not ‘just a few bad apples.’… The politicians excusing this violence are complicit.” pic.twitter.com/J9ik7vmf6q
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) March 17, 2026
“It is terror, and it is Jewish terror,” Ms. Cohen said, further charging that Israeli government officials help facilitate it through obfuscation, encouragement or ensuring “the terrorists don’t get arrested, all of these people are responsible for this terror no less than those terrorists from the hilltops.”
“Silence is filth. This unacceptable phenomenon must be stopped,” she concluded.
Former defense minister: ‘Jewish pogromists’ turning nation into ‘Judeo-Nazis’
Additionally, in late January, former Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon condemned “Jewish pogromists attacking Palestinians” in the West Bank and lamenting that “not a single Jewish terrorist has been arrested” for committing these ongoing crimes.
He warned that the “ideology of ‘Jewish supremacy’… has become dominant in the Israeli government, (and) reminds one of Nazi racial theory” that, with the violence exercised against Palestinians, is turning the nation into “Judeo-Nazis.”
And, finally, along with other Israeli officials speaking out against the atrocities, former prime minister Ehud Olmert warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July 2024 that he would eventually be arrested and prosecuted. Olmert accused Netanyahu of allowing these ongoing crimes “by rioters who are Israeli citizens, Arab haters” who commit them against Palestinians “with the clear intention of expelling them from their homes and the villages where they have lived all their lives.”
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