Trump's attack on Iran widens the gap between him and the Catholic Church |
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........