A brief opening to shore up progress toward stability in Syria unfortunately coincides with Trump administration decisions to sharply curtail humanitarian and development assistance and to terminate the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Pope Leo XIV denounced the “violent conflict [that] seems to be raging in the Christian East with a diabolical intensity previously unknown” and said the Christians of the West must do more to help the Christians of the East, especially those suffering in Ukraine, Gaza and other places in the Middle East.

Aware of the deep concern this new act of violence has caused among Christians in this part of the world, Pope Leo offered these words of assurance: “I say to the Christians of the Middle East: I am close to you! The whole church is close to you!”

In ‘Where is the Friend’s House?,’ we see the faces of the Iranian people captured with sensitivity and detail.

As I write, Mr. Trump is declaring that “nobody knows” what he is going to do about Iran. I fear that “nobody” includes him.

Pope Leo called for a “commitment to build a world that is safer and free from the nuclear threat.”