Pope Leo XIV has called out depictions of war that transform it “into a video game”, days after a series of White House social media posts spliced footage of real bomb strikes with clips from popular gaming titles. Source: NCR Online.
Speaking yesterday to the staff of the Italian state television program TG2, the Pope said it was up to journalists “to show the sufferings that war always brings to the people; to show the face of war and to relate it through the eyes of the victims, so as not to transform it into a video game”.
“Always, but especially in the dramatic circumstances of war, such as those we are currently experiencing, the media must guard against the risk of becoming propaganda,” Leo said.
“And the task of journalists, in verifying the news so as not to become a mouthpiece for those in power, becomes even more urgent and delicate — I would say essential.”
Although the Pope did not reference any specific examples, his remarks came amid criticism of the Trump Administration’s online messaging about the war in the Middle East.
On X, the White House published a post on March 12 that spliced real footage of bomb strikes in Iran with footage from the Nintendo video game “Wii Sports”, captioned “UNDEFEATED.”
Another post from March 6 included clips from the video game “Grand Theft Auto V.”
And beyond video games, the White House has published posts combining footage from the war with scenes from action movies and football tackles.
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago called the administration’s comparison of the war to a video game “sickening” and a “profound moral failure.”
Leo’s comments followed an escalation in his rhetoric around the war in Iran. After an initial two weeks in which his condemnation of the war was relatively restrained, the Pope explicitly called for a ceasefire and lamented the “thousands of innocent people” killed in strikes on civilian targets.
The Vatican also said March 16 that Leo received a phone call from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the “alarming developments in the conflict in the Middle East and the living conditions of the Palestinian people”.
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Pope Leo condemns depicting war as a ‘video game’ (By Justin McLellan, NCR Online)
