Pope Leo, Saint Augustine and the desire for domination
Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass last month at a stadium in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
Vatican Media / Alamy
Leo’s warnings – that a powerful country’s lust for mastery not only leads to war and suffering but rots a nation and its people from within – are rooted in the world of one of the Church’s greatest writers and theologians.
At the Chrism Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Holy Thursday, Pope Leo XIV warned against the corrupting effects of the “desire for domination”. The Pope later declared on social media that “God’s name should not be profaned by the desire for domination, arrogance or discrimination”. We have seen terrible instances of that desire throughout history, most recently in the wanton attacks on Iran and on Lebanon.
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