According to Christopher Hale, Pope Leo XIV has named Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari, Iran’s ambassador to the Vatican, a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of Pius IX, according to a certificate dated May 8 and signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope’s secretary of state.
The honor raises the Iranian envoy to one of the most senior classes of the highest active papal order, founded in 1847 by Pope Pius IX and conferred today on senior diplomats and heads of state.
Iranian state media is not treating this as a routine retirement honor. PressTV and the West Asia News Agency are running the certificate alongside images of Mokhtari with Pope Leo XIV, framing the medal as a counter-signal from an American pope to a wartime American president—a quiet diplomatic verdict on Donald Trump’s bombing campaign against Iran.
So, Pope Leo is siding with Iran over the United States. He is giving them hope that if they keep doing what they are doing, they have enough support to win.
Iran killed 30,000 to 40,000 of their own people. Many were simply protesting peacefully. They are still killing innocents. Has he asked for them to stop killing their own people? I wonder.
4 people, including a protester, were executed in Iran over the past 72 hours.
Since March 18, at least 32 people, including 15 protesters, have been hanged on politically motivated charges. Among them were teens & athletes.
Diplomacy that excludes human rights is complicity. pic.twitter.com/fWy4Zb0GYG
— Bahar | بهار (@BGhandehari) May 14, 2026
