Did Pope Leo XIV misquote Jesus as saying, "Blessed are the peacemakers, but woe to those who manipulate religion"? No, that's not true: The pope wasn't reading a Scripture passage at the time; he was delivering a homily on peace while in Bamenda, Cameroon, on a tour of Africa. The sentence in question excerpted a famous line from the Gospel of Matthew. It was followed by a longer sentence summarizing Pope Leo's message on the war with Iran and other conflicts.
The claim, punctuated in a way that runs two sentences together, appeared in a post and video (archived here) by the @jackunheard account on X on April 16, 2026. It read:
NEW: Outrage has broken out after Pope Leo appeared to quote Jesus using a passage that does not exist in the Bible.
'Jesus told us, "Blessed are the peacemakers, but woe to those who manipulate religion in the very name of God for their own military, economic, or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth."'
The first line echoes scripture.
The rest does not appear in any biblical passage.
The Pope is being accused of using a fabricated quote from Jesus to push a political message.
This is what a video still from the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: Post by @jackunheard on X.)
Video of Pope Leo's appearance can be viewed here (archived here):
NEW: Outrage has broken out after Pope Leo appeared to quote Jesus using a passage that does not exist in the Bible.
-- Jack (@jackunheard) April 16, 2026
"Jesus told us, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, but woe to those who manipulate religion in the very name of God for their own military, economic, or political... pic.twitter.com/P9w7vIfGaz
Official transcript
The official transcript (archived here) of Pope Leo's speech, "Meeting for Peace with the Community of Bamenda," clarifies his message in Cameroon. All of the words quoted in the social media post are correct, but the punctuation is not correct:
Jesus told us: Blessed are the peacemakers! 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.
"Blessed are the peacemakers," quotes Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:9. The full verse (archived here) from the New International Version of the Bible reads:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
While the pontiff was quoting Jesus from the Bible, he was not quoting a complete verse. His sentence ended with "peacemakers" and an exclamation point. Then, Pope Leo continues with his message on peace, adding his own warning.
