You would think that this story was from a satirical website like The Babylon Bee or a parody skit, but it’s all too real. Pope Leo just awarded a top Iranian official with the Vatican’s highest diplomatic honor.
When I read it, I thought there was no way that such a lack of moral clarity—outright insanity—could be possible. Then I did some research, digging into multiple sources confirming that this top official from one of the world’s most bloodthirsty regimes, that’s fresh off slaughtering 43,000 of its own people in January alone (according to President Trump’s latest figures) is getting top honors at the Vatican.
Folks, wrap your heads around this!
Pope Leo has been critical of the Iran war, at loggerheads with President Trump. The timing of this seems like a poke in the eye.
Some pro-Leo websites insist that the timing meant nothing, the same excuse that we saw under the Biden administration when “transgender day of visibility” just happened to fall on Easter Sunday. They call it a simple “diplomatic protocol,” as this official is the Iranian ambassador to the so-called “Holy See.” He has been in that position for two and a half years, they assert, so it’s time he received this honor.
Sorry, I’m not buying it!
This needs to be called out. Pope Leo has awarded the Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of Pius IX, the Vatican’s highest active diplomatic distinction, to the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari. The decision was confirmed by a diploma dated May 8th and signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.
Although the award is usually part of the Vatican diplomatic protocol and is typically granted to ambassadors accredited to the “Holy See” after several years of service, the geopolitical context and the pope’s recent statements on the conflict with Iran have turned the gesture into a subject of strong debate.
You’re supposedly a “Christian leader,” and you’re honoring a representative from a bloodthirsty regime that slaughters and persecutes Christians at every turn? A regime that has fresh blood on its hands from murdering tens of thousands of its own citizens. No one disputes that a massacre happened in January. Every credible organization says mass carnage occurred over a very short span of time. It hearkened back to the domestic purges from the days of Mao and Stalin! Mokhtari represents this regime and, with a straight face, the Pope is honoring him. It boggles the mind.
The Order of Pius IX, also known as the “Papal Order,” was instituted in 1847 and is considered one of the highest honorary distinctions of the “Holy See” or the Vatican. Today, it is mainly awarded to heads of state and high diplomatic representatives. Maybe the Vatican should have made an exception here!
According to Iranian state media, the distinction was granted to Mokhtari in recognition of his diplomatic work—and I have to try to keep a straight face here—for his efforts to “promote peace, justice, and opposition to warmongering.”
He presented his credentials in December 2023, about two and a half years ago. Iran is painting this as a big victory. This, in their view, is diplomatic and theological recognition from a branch of Christianity—Catholicism. Regardless of your theological persuasion, the Muslim world sees the Vatican as having strong Christian legitimacy. There are over a billion catholics in the world, 53 million here in America. For the muslim world and the Islamist jihadi regime in Iran, to get official recognition from the Vatican is a big deal—and it sends a very harmful message.
First and foremost, it’s a slap in the face to the Iranian people. Imagine if you were a family member or a friend of one of those 43,000 Iranians who were slaughtered by Mokhtari’s good buddies just a few months ago, and then you see him getting honored by the Pope! Imagine how those Iranians feel.
What about the Bible-believing Iranian Christians? Has Pope Leo talked about them and how they’re suffering? It’s the world’s fastest-growing church, and they have been forced underground. Why? Because they will be killed, imprisoned, and tortured. Is Pope Leo talking about that?
The award to the Iranian regime’s top representative comes after Leo publicly condemned the military actions of the United States and Israel against Iran, and reiterated the “Holy See’s” traditional rejection of military escalation.
Leo is the first American Pope, and like his predecessor, Francis, he is a leftist who lacks moral clarity. There is no excuse for willfully presenting an Iranian regime official with the highest diplomatic honor. Diplomatic protocol, my foot!
The US and Israel are locked in a struggle against this wicked, anti-Christian, genocidal regime. They are working to defend Judeo-Christian Western civilization. Is it not classified as just war to attack the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism? This is a regime that was developing nuclear weapons to strike the West and wipe Israel, America, and Europe off the map. This is a regime that used thousands upon thousands of ballistic missiles to ignite wars across the Middle East. This is a regime that has used terrorist proxies to mastermind a massacre that brutally massacred 1,200 on October 7th.
If confronting this wicked regime is not a just war, then what is?
On Palm Sunday, Pope Leo insisted that God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who wage war. That’s anti-Biblical. God commanded the ancient Israelites to make war against pagan tribes. Did god not listen to the psalms of David, who was a man of war? Did God not listen to Dwight D Eisenhower in World War II and the Allied troops who were storming the beaches of Normandy to take down the demonic threat of the nazi Regime? This is extreme pacifism—and it is not Biblical.
God condones confronting evil.
No one likes war, but there is necessary war—and to take down the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism certainly qualifies. You do the math. If you’re looking at Leo for moral guidance, you may want to look elsewhere.
