2026-04-16T17:52:17.964Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：亚伦·布莱克
更新于1小时31分钟前
2026年4月16日美国东部时间下午2:37更新
发布于2026年4月16日美国东部时间下午1:52
唐纳德·特朗普 皮特·赫格斯塞特 宗教
教皇利奥十四世周四抵达喀麦隆巴门达的巴门达机场。
帕特里克·迈因哈特/法新社/盖蒂图片社
共和党人基本就两套回应方案达成共识，以此为总统唐纳德·特朗普将自己塑造成耶稣的可能亵渎神明帖文，以及他与利奥十四世教皇就伊朗战争爆发的争执辩解。
他们承认，特朗普现已删除的那篇帖文考虑不周。但同时，教皇也应管好自己的分内事。
美国国防部长皮特·赫格斯塞特周四彻底打破了这两套说辞——并进一步坐实了特朗普政府正在模糊神学与政治的界限，几乎是在刻意要求与教皇爆发更直接的冲突。
随着利奥教皇愈发频繁地发出警告，称特朗普政府在滥用上帝的意志，这场冲突似乎已然迫在眉睫。
周四在一场伊朗战争简报会上，赫格斯塞特将对战争持怀疑态度的媒体比作曾密谋迫害耶稣的法利赛人——他们总能找到借口打压耶稣，即便耶稣已经行过神迹。
“我在教堂里听着布道，就觉得我们的媒体和那些法利赛人一模一样，”赫格斯塞特说道。
当然，要让这个比喻成立，特朗普就得是耶稣。而这已经是两周内第三次出现类似表述了。特朗普本人曾发布并随后删除过一张自己化身耶稣治愈病患的图片，本月早些时候，他的精神顾问宝拉·怀特-凯恩在白宫复活节活动上还将特朗普比作耶稣。
尽管参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩、副总统JD·万斯等共和党人都主张教皇应专注于神学事务，而政治家则应恪守政治职责，但特朗普政府似乎愈发执意将伊朗冲突塑造成一场得到上帝庇佑的圣战。
这便形成了一个尴尬的论调：既然教皇不应评判战争，那么特朗普和赫格斯塞特就有权评判上帝的意志。
以下是简要梳理（特此感谢CNN的扎卡里·B·沃尔夫，他数周来一直在追踪相关动态）：
- 赫格斯塞特曾表示，军事打击是“在神圣天意的庇护下展开的”。
- 他引用了《诗篇》中的语句：“耶和华我的磐石是应当称颂的，他教导我的手能以争战，我的指头能以打仗。”
- 近期在五角大楼的一场基督教礼拜仪式上，赫格斯塞特援引了诅咒式诗篇——本质上是祈求上帝向仇敌复仇的祷告，其中包括请求上帝“打断恶人的牙齿”，并以上帝的“压倒性暴力行动”对付那些不值得怜悯之人。
- 周三的另一场礼拜仪式上，这位国防部长诵读了一则他称与他人共享的复仇式祷告，内容似乎致敬了塞缪尔·L·杰克逊在《低俗小说》中那段恶名昭彰的独白。
- 他周四还暗示，两次营救美国空军人员的行动堪称“奇迹，你们可以这么说”。
- 赫格斯塞特此前曾将其中一次营救行动与耶稣复活相提并论。
- 特朗普在自己的讲话结尾总会加上一句“荣耀归于上帝”。
- 这位总统还曾断言，上帝支持这场战争，因为“上帝希望看到民众得到照料”。
教皇似乎已经注意到了这一趋势。
周四上午简报会上赫格斯塞特发表讲话后没过几分钟，利奥教皇就发布了一则针对他刚在喀麦隆巴门达发表的演讲的尖锐评论。
“耶稣教导我们，使人和睦的人有福了，”教皇说道，“但那些为了自身军事、经济或政治利益，操纵宗教乃至以上帝之名，将神圣之事拖入黑暗与污秽之人，有祸了。”
事实上，教皇的批评并不仅限于伊朗战争；他此前就曾警告过，不要以上帝的意志为战争辩护。
在3月底的棕枝主日演讲中，他称耶稣是“无人能借以来为战争正名”的存在。
“上帝不会为任何冲突赐福，”他上周补充道，“任何基督的门徒——和平之君的门徒，都绝不会站在那些昔日挥剑、如今投弹之人的一边。”
3月29日，送葬者在伊朗德黑兰参加美以空袭中遇难平民的葬礼。
马吉德·赛义迪/盖蒂图片社
梵蒂冈上周表示，教皇的言论并非针对任何个人。事实上，假借神之名发动战争的案例比比皆是，这算得上是一种历史常态。
但特朗普政府显然决定在美国外交政策中重拾这一套路。这也导致特朗普政府与天主教会之间爆发了意志层面的对抗。
“教皇想说什么都可以，我也乐见他畅所欲言，但我可以不同意他的观点，”特朗普周四在白宫对记者说道。
本届政府迫切希望将这场战争包装成一场圣战——此举很可能是为了在整体持怀疑态度的美国民众中争取更多支持，包括那些态度冷淡的特朗普支持者。
事实上，赫格斯塞特早在2020年出版的《美国十字军》一书中就已经使用过类似表述。在书中，赫格斯塞特赞许地援引了某位教皇为十字军东征祈福的典故。
“教皇、天主教会与欧洲基督徒选择参战——十字军东征就此诞生，”赫格斯塞特写道，“乌尔班二世教皇鼓动信徒们以那句著名的战斗口号参战：‘Deus vult！’，也就是‘上帝所愿！’”
（你或许还记得，赫格斯塞特在去年的确认听证会上因“Deus vult”纹身引发过争议。）
赫格斯塞特在段落结尾哀叹，如今的教皇与天主教会已与乌尔班二世时代相去甚远。
“两次世界大战中，欧洲都得到了美国的救助，”赫格斯塞特说道，“而如今的教皇却在主持跨信仰礼拜仪式。”
如今，教皇似乎至少已准备好投入一场口舌之争。
本届政府不仅发动了一场理由站不住脚的战争，还声称这场战争得到了上帝的庇佑，这似乎正促使利奥教皇采取更强硬的表态。毕竟，违背上帝的意志是一回事；但打着上帝意志的旗号公然行事，则是另一回事。
这意味着，那些原本希望这场争议仅持续一两天、以为可以将教皇教训一顿就翻篇的共和党人，恐怕要大失所望了。
或许是时候换一套新的论调了。
本故事已更新补充最新进展。
How Trump and Hegseth are complicating the GOP’s pope pushback
2026-04-16T17:52:17.964Z / CNN
Analysis by
Aaron Blake
Updated 1 hr 31 min ago
Updated Apr 16, 2026, 2:37 PM ET
PUBLISHED Apr 16, 2026, 1:52 PM ET
Donald Trump Pete Hegseth Religion
Pope Leo XIV arrives at Bamenda Airport in Bamenda, Cameroon, on Thursday.
Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images
Republicans have largely settled on a two-sided response to explain away President Donald Trump’s potentially blasphemous post depicting himself as Jesus, as well as his feud with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.
Trump’s now-deleted post was ill-advised, they concede. But also, the pope should stay in his lane.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday trampled all over those points — and reinforced that the Trump administration is the side blurring the lines between theology and politics, practically demanding a more direct clash with the pope.
That clash appears to be arriving, with Pope Leo increasingly sounding an alarm that the Trump administration is misappropriating God’s will.
In an Iran war briefing Thursday, Hegseth likened the media covering the war skeptically to Pharisees who plotted against Jesus — searching for an excuse to persecute him even as Jesus performed a miracle.
“I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees,” Hegseth said.
Of course, for the metaphor to work, Trump would have to be Jesus. And this is now the third time in two weeks the administration has painted such a picture. Trump himself posted and later deleted an image of himself as Jesus, healing a sick man, and earlier this month his spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain likened Trump to Jesus at a White House Easter event.
And despite Republicans like Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Vice President JD Vance arguing that the pope should stick to theology while politicians stick to politics, the Trump administration appears increasingly bent on casting the Iran conflict as a holy war blessed by God.
That makes for an awkward argument: While Pope Leo shouldn’t judge wars, Trump and Hegseth are allowed to judge God’s will.
Here’s a brief recap (with a tip of the cap to CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf, who has been documenting this for weeks):
- Hegseth has said the military strikes are being “carried out under the protection of divine providence.”
- He has quoted a Psalm which says, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”
- At a Christian service at the Pentagon recently, Hegseth cited imprecatory psalms — basically, prayers seeking God’s retribution against foes — which included asking for God to “break the teeth of the ungodly” and for God’s “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
- At another service Wednesday, the Defense secretary recited a vengeful prayer he said was shared with him that appears to echo a notorious Samuel L. Jackson character’s monologue in “Pulp Fiction.”
- He on Thursday suggestively cited a pair of rescue missions of American airmen as “miracles, you might say.”
- Hegseth previously drew parallels between one of those rescues and Jesus’ resurrection.
- Trump has punctuated his own remarks by saying, “glory be to GOD.”
- And the president later wagered that God supports the war because “God wants to see people taken care of.”
The pope appears to have noticed this trend.
Mere minutes after Hegseth’s comments at the briefing Thursday morning, Pope Leo posted a pointed comment from a speech he had just delivered in Bamenda, Cameroon.
“Jesus told us blessed are the peacemakers,” the pope said. “But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain — dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Indeed, the pope hasn’t been content just to criticize the Iran war; he has previously warned against invoking God’s will to justify it.
In his Palm Sunday address in late March, he referred to Jesus as someone “whom no one can use to justify war.”
“God does not bless any conflict,” he added last week. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Mourners attend the funeral of a civilian killed in US-Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, on March 29.
Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
The Vatican said last week that the pope’s comments weren’t just about any one person. And indeed, there are plenty of examples of people waging war while claiming to do so on behalf of a god. It’s kind of a historical trend.
But it’s one that the Trump administration has clearly decided to resurrect in US foreign policy. And that has set up a war of wills between the Trump administration and the Catholic Church.
“The pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree,” Trump told reporters at the White House Thursday.
The administration badly wants to pitch this war as a holy one — likely looking to garner more backing from a broadly skeptical American public, including lukewarm Trump supporters.
In fact, Hegseth has been speaking in such terms dating back to a book he published in 2020 called, “American Crusade.” In that book, Hegseth approvingly cited a pope having blessed the crusades.
“The pope, the Catholic Church, and European Christians chose to fight — and the crusades were born,” Hegseth wrote. “Pope Urban II urged the faithful to fight the Muslims with his famous battle cry on their lips: ‘Deus vult!,’ or ‘God wills it!’”
(You might remember the controversy over Hegseth’s “Deus vult” tattoo during his confirmation process last year.)
Hegseth concluded the paragraph by lamenting a papacy and a Catholic Church that bears little resemblance to the one from the days of Urban II.
“Europe was twice bailed out by America in world wars,” Hegseth said, “and the pope today leads interfaith services.”
These days, the pope seems quite anxious to at least partake in a rhetorical fight.
The administration’s decision to not just launch a thinly justified war, but to claim to be doing so with the blessings of God, appears to be spurring Leo to weigh in more forcefully. It’s one thing to go against God’s will, after all; it’s another to do so while claiming affirmatively that it is God’s will.
That means that Republicans who might have hoped this would be a one- or two-day story — and that they could put the pope in his place and move on — appear unlikely to get their wish.
And it might be time to come up with a new talking point.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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