Trump’s attack on Iran widens the gap between him and the Catholic Church

On March 1, hours after the launch of Operation Epic Fury, Pope Leo XIV denounced Donald Trump’s new war: “Let diplomacy silence the weapons,” he said. “Let nations chart their future with works of peace, not with violence and bloody conflicts!” 

He continued, “I address to the parties involved a heartfelt appeal to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”  

This wasn’t the first time Leo has delivered a passionate plea for peace. Speaking to a crowd of ambassadors from 184 countries earlier this year, he condemned abdicating the rule of law in favor of a world that Trump adviser Stephen Miller described as being governed by “strength,” “force” and “power.” In such a world, Leo said, “War is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading.”

The seeds of division between the Trump administration and the Catholic Church were planted early in Trump’s second term. On Jan. 22, 2025, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, then-president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Trump’s executive orders that “focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences.”

Twenty Catholic bishops signed a letter opposing Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” and its “severe cuts in healthcare coverage and food assistance to millions of both low-income citizens and legal residents, including asylum-seekers and refugees.”  

During the 1980s, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops became an informal auxiliary organization of the Republican Party thanks to the issue of abortion. President Ronald Reagan attracted many pro-life evangelicals and Catholics to the Republican Party with his anti-abortion stance. As the years passed, aspiring Republicans realized that if they were to realize their highest ambitions, they must be unequivocally pro-life.

At the same time, ambitious Democrats came to understand that to have any chance of advancement, they would have to be adamantly pro-choice on abortion. This seismic shift drove many Catholic bishops into the waiting arms of the Republican Party.

In 2019, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement stating that opposing abortion was their “preeminent priority” and, in 2004, it declared that “no awards, honors, or platforms” should be given to those who “act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”  

Leo has taken the Catholic bishops’ opposition to abortion and broadened it. In October, he stated: “Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion’ but says ‘I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life.” He added, “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

Adding to the discord between Trump and the Catholic bishops is their involvement in the Supreme Court case concerning birthright citizenship. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order limiting the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship to anyone born inside the U.S. The Catholic bishops have submitted an amicus brief in this case opposing Trump and citing Catholic teaching that “affirms the inherent dignity of every human person, especially the innocent child.” 

While the rift between Trump and the Catholic Church expands, the attacks emanating from Trump’s supporters have grown more heated. After Leo issued his broadside against the Iran War, MAGA personality Mike Cernovich countered, “Peace is achieved through the use of weapons.” Conservative pro-Trump radio host Steve Deace wrote, “It’s pretty obvious this American pope was specifically selected to try and check American nationalism/ influence/ hegemony.” Steve Bannon also questioned Leo’s selection, telling the Financial Times that, “The conclave for the pope was more rigged than the 2020 election.”

Meanwhile at nearly every public event, Leo expresses his opposition to the Iran War. Speaking off-the-cuff to a group of parish schoolchildren, he said: “War, again! We too must be heralds of the message of peace, the peace of Jesus, the peace that God wants for everyone.”  

Leo’s anti-war position is consistent with the teachings of St. Augustine, whose religious order he joined as a young man. In “The City of God,” Augustine warned, as Pope Leo himself put it, that the “grave dangers to political life” arise from “false representations of history, excessive nationalism, and the distortion of the ideal of the political leader.” 

The three grave dangers to political life that Augustine warned about are present in Trump’s persona. It is no wonder the fracture in his relationship with the Catholic Church is growing steadily. 

John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus at The Catholic University of America. His latest book is titled “Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.” 

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