THE Pope has defended himself against angry remarks by President Trump, after the US President claimed that the American Pontiff owed his election to him.

“I have no fear of the Trump Administration or speaking out loudly the message of the Gospel,” Pope Leo told journalists on his flight to Algeria on Monday, at the start of an 11-day tour of Africa. “I continue to speak strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, dialogue and multilateralism among states. . . I believe someone must stand up and say there is a better way.”

Pope Leo was responding to a series of fierce criticisms by President Trump, which were apparently connected to the Pope’s implied criticisms of recent US military ventures.

The Pope was defended by church leaders of various denominations. These included the President of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Paul Coakley, who said that he was “disheartened” by the President’s “disparaging words”, and the Italian Bishops’ Conference, at which the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, also described the remarks as unacceptable.

Pope Leo has appealed for an end to US and Israeli attacks on Iran, which began on 28 February. He has condemned President Trump’s threat, on 7 April, to terminate the country’s “whole civilisation”.

In his Easter message, the Pope urged “those who have the power to unleash wars” to choose peace through dialogue. At a peace vigil in Rome last weekend, he warned against the “delusion of omnipotence”.

The Chicago-born Pope has also maintained the critical stance of his predecessor, Pope Francis, on other issues, such as the mass deportation of migrants.

In a social-media post on Sunday, President Trump described Pope Leo as “weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy”, saying that he did not “want a Pope” who disapproved of his January attack on Venezuela and “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.

“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” President Trump wrote. “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use common sense, stop catering to the radical left, and focus on being a great Pope, not a politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”

On Tuesday, President Trump was reported to have taken down a social-media image depicting himself as a radiant Christ-like figure healing a sick man. He rejected calls to apologise, however, insisting that Pope Leo had “said things that are wrong”.

Among other reactions, the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, said that President Trump’s actions conveyed “a troubling lack of respect for the faith of millions”, and that his “graphic exploitation of sacred imagery” was also “deeply offensive”.

Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe told the BBC that President Trump’s AI-generated image had “implied an attack on Christianity”. He said that the Pope had a duty “to speak out against anybody who promotes war”, and “every right to oppose the politics of the President”.