Trump says he has right to disagree with Pope Leo XIV

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares stated Thursday that political leaders should have no involvement in religious affairs, defending Pope Leo XIV after President Donald Trump publicly criticized the pontiff as "weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy." Albares, speaking at an event honoring Spanish victims of Argentina's dictatorship (1976-1983), said it is "completely criticizable" for political leaders to attack religious leaders, calling himself "a firm defender of religious freedom" who fully supports the Pope's peace appeals regarding conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, who leads Anglicans worldwide, joined Albares in praising the Pope's stance. In a statement, Mullally described the Pope's call for peace as "brave" and expressed solidarity with his message, warning that as "innocent people are killed and displaced, families torn apart and futures destroyed, the human cost of war is incalculable." In a separate development, Pope Leo XIV traveled to Bamenda, the capital of Ambazonia in Cameroon, to meet with hundreds of victims of a decade-long secessionist conflict that has killed at least 6,000 people and displaced 500,000, according to United Nations figures. The Pope condemned ongoing wars and lamented that "the world is being devastated by a handful of tyrants," highlighting what he described as one of the planet's most overlooked conflicts.