Pope Leo called Father Pierre al-Rahi, who rushed to help parishioners wounded by Israeli fire, “a true shepherd, who always stayed beside his people, with the love and sacrifice of Jesus the Good Shepherd.”
Middle East
Posted inNews
Iran’s Cardinal Mathieu evacuated to Rome
Cardinal Dominique Mathieu said he arrived in Rome March 8 “not without regret and sorrow for our brothers and sisters in Iran.”
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Pope Leo expresses ‘deep sorrow’ for Lebanese Maronite Catholic priest killed by Israeli tank fire
Pope Leo XIV expressed his “deep sorrow” for a Lebanese Maronite Catholic priest who was killed in southern Lebanon when an Israeli artillery tank fired on a house March 9.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo calls for a stop to ‘the thunderous sound of bombs’ in the Middle East
Pope Leo XIV again called for a stop to “the thunderous sound of bombs” in Iran and the Middle East, for the guns to “fall silent” and for the opening of “a space for dialogue” to find a way out of this latest conflict in the region.
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The church’s just war tradition has been challenged by contemporary theologians as insufficient and outdated, yet it remains a worthy filter through which to judge the moral defensibility of a turn to war-making.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 inPodcasts
Why Pope Leo was ‘relatively restrained’ on Iran war
This week on “Inside the Vatican,” Gerard O’Connell explains why he saw Leo’s comments on Iran as relatively restrained compared to John Paul II’s at the beginning of the Iraq War.
Posted inPodcasts
Just or unjust? Catholics respond to the Iran war
This week on “Jesuitical,” Ashley sits down with America’s chief correspondent, Kevin Clarke, to discuss the widening conflict with Iran and whether the U.S. intervention in the conflict can be justified under just war theory.
Posted inOf Many Things
I regret supporting the Iraq War. We shouldn’t repeat our mistakes in Iran now.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to see that the pope was far more clear-eyed than the politicians who opted for war in Iraq and the Catholic thinkers who helped provide the war’s putative justification.
Posted inInterviews
Cardinal Parolin on Iran war: ‘The force of law has been replaced by the law of force’
“Justice has given way to force; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force, with the conviction that peace can arise only after the enemy has been annihilated.”
Posted inNews
Lebanese archbishop: Innocents are ‘paying the price’ of Middle East war
As the scourge of war spreads across the Middle East, including Lebanon, the ones paying the ultimate price are the innocent men, women and children who want to live in peace, said Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Georges Iskandar of Tyre.