Trump tried to out-holy the Pope. His evangelical supporters are not amused

April 15, 2026 — 3:30pm

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On Palm Sunday, as Christians around the world began to celebrate the holiest week of their calendar, Pope Leo XIV stood at the Vatican and read Isaiah 1:15: “Even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood.”

Much has been made of Leo’s comments, especially as they came from the first American-born pope as the US administration waded into a globally disruptive war that it has not even attempted to justify.

Leo has previously spoken about peace, and he has continued his predecessor’s focus on the poor, migrants, and those affected by war. But the pontiff’s use of this passage was more pointed – it was a specific criticism of the hypocrisy of an American crusade wrapped in a Christian nationalism that few other than the pope had the moral authority to decry. This was as much an appeal to Christian Americans as it was to world........

© The Sydney Morning Herald