The principle of sparing civilian lives is a cornerstone of international law. And the hatred caused by the killing of noncombatants jeopardizes long-term peace.
Donald Trump
Posted inThe Weekly Dispatch
On immigration and war, the U.S. bishops are echoing Oscar Romero
Decades after his martyrdom, Romero’s insistence that the laws of God stand above law created by humankind and the edicts and commands of political and military leaders has been repeated by bishops in the United States, speaking against war-making and mass deportation.
Posted inShort Take
The Trump administration treats war like a video game
Crude memes about attacking Iran hint at a deeper connection between video games and the desensitizing features of modern warfare.
Posted inDispatches
Bishop Seitz urges ICE agents not to follow illegal deportation orders
In a pastoral letter on March 15, Bishop Mark Seitz urged immigration enforcement agents not to follow illegal orders and denounced the “grave moral evil” of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Posted inYour Take
Our readers on the moral resistance to Trump’s ‘politics of rage’
“The federal government’s approach is out of all proportion to the scope of the problem of a small percentage of undocumented immigrants that have committed crimes.”
Posted inThe Weekly Dispatch
A Catholic guide to understanding the war with Iran
The church’s just war tradition has been challenged by contemporary theologians as insufficient and outdated, yet it remains a worthy filter through which to judge the moral defensibility of a turn to war-making.
Posted inEditorials
Against Unjust and Unjustified War with Iran
The Trump administration’s reasoning not only fails to meet the criteria for military action in any formulation of just war theory or international law, it also fails the test of common sense.
Posted inNews
Results of Iran war ‘may be worse’ than Iraq, Catholic law professor says
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, argues that “February 28, 2026, will forever mark the day that the United States began a war on Iran that will be compared with the disastrous March 2003 invasion of Iraq.”
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo urges a halt to ‘spiral of violence’ across Iran and Middle East
Pope Leo prayed that “diplomacy may regain its role and promote the good of the peoples who yearn for a peaceful coexistence founded on justice.”
Posted inNews
Sorrow, shock for Catholics in Middle East as US and Israel strike Iran amid negotiations
Bishop Aldo Berardi, apostolic vicar of northern Arabia, issued a Feb. 28 statement on Facebook, urging the faithful “to remain calm, united in prayer, and attentive to the safety of everyone.”