Washington – “As pastors entrusted with teaching our people, we cannot stand by and watch.” These are strong words from Cardinals Blase J. Cupich, Robert McElroy and Joseph W. Tobin. The three prelates explicitly invoke the address delivered by Pope Leo XIV to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See on 9 January and adopt it as a criterion for assessing the direction of United States foreign policy.
Three cardinals, one line: applying the Magisterium to foreign policy
Cupich, McElroy and Tobin state their intention to measure America’s international conduct against the principles set out by Leo XIV. For Cupich, the issue is not theoretical: “we cannot stand by and watch while decisions are taken that condemn millions of people to lives permanently trapped on the margins of existence.” From this follows a clear commitment to translate the Pope’s words into criteria for “the conduct of our nation and its leaders.”
2026: a “lacerating” debate and a moral crisis after the Cold War
The statement situates the issue within what it calls “the deepest and most lacerating debate” over the moral foundations of American action in the world since the end of the Cold War. Recent events are cited: Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland as cases that reopen radical questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace, while the self-determination of nations appears “all too fragile” in a context of ever more widespread conflicts.
Weakened multilateralism and a “diplomacy of force”
The three cardinals describe Leo XIV’s address as an “enduring ethical compass” and echo his warning about the weakening of multilateralism. The Pope identifies a clear shift: diplomacy oriented towards dialogue and the search for consensus is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, practised by individual actors or groups of allies.
War “in fashion” and violated borders: the fracture of the post-war order
In the cited passage, Leo XIV denounces a climate in which “war has come back into fashion” and a “bellicose fervour” is spreading. The Pope links this drift to the erosion of a core post-Second World War principle: the prohibition on using force to violate the borders of others. What follows is a reversal in the understanding of peace: no longer a good sought in itself, but an objective pursued “through weapons” as a means of asserting dominance.
Social doctrine: solidarity, dignity and a “just peace”
McElroy articulates the moral key of the stance: when national interest, narrowly construed, excludes the imperative of solidarity among nations and the dignity of the human person, it produces “immense suffering” and a “catastrophic assault” on a just peace, which “benefits every nation and is the will of God.” He warns that ignoring this reality in the American debate comes “at the cost of the most authentic interests of our country” and of its “best traditions.”
The right to life: the foundation of human rights
The statement recalls Leo XIV’s affirmation that “the protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation of every other human right.” The bishops note that the Pope links this principle to his assessment of abortion and euthanasia, identified as practices that undermine that very right.
These words rebut the tendentious narrative promoted by certain blogs and websites backed by American donors close to the Trump administration, which had launched harsh attacks on Cardinal Blase J. Cupich. According to that account, the award conferred on Senator Dick Durbin amounted to an endorsement of his positions on abortion. Pope Leo XIV, responding to a loaded question from an American journalist, had reframed the issue more broadly: “one cannot judge an entire senatorial career on the basis of a single issue.” He then recalled a criterion of moral coherence: those who describe themselves as pro-life and oppose abortion, yet support the death penalty or accept inhumane treatment of migrants, ultimately hollow out their own claim to be truly pro-life.
Humanitarian aid and dignity: concern over cuts by wealthy countries
Among the points highlighted is also the necessity of international aid to safeguard the core elements of human dignity. Leo XIV, it is recalled, speaks of a dignity under attack also because of decisions by wealthier countries to reduce or eliminate contributions to overseas humanitarian assistance programmes.
Conscience and religious freedom under pressure
A further axis concerns conscience and religious freedom. The Pope points to “growing violations” carried out in the name of ideological or religious purity that ends up “crushing freedom itself.” The signatories include this dimension in their overall vision: peace, dignity and freedom are not separate compartments, but interwoven criteria for evaluating foreign policy.
Operational commitment: war only as a “last resort”, advocacy in the months ahead
Cupich, McElroy and Tobin describe themselves as “pastors and citizens” and declare that they embrace the Pope’s vision of an “authentically moral” foreign policy. The choices outlined are unequivocal: to repudiate war as a tool for narrow national interests and to consider military action only as a “last resort” in extreme situations. They also announce direct engagement in the public arena: “we will preach, teach and engage in advocacy” so that the American debate moves beyond polarisation, partisanship and restricted interests.
The weight of three local Churches: numbers and structures
These are three cardinals who lead three local Churches which, by their size and capillary presence, exert real influence on American Catholicism: the Archdiocese of Chicago, with around 2 million Catholics, 216 parishes and more than 150 schools, and the historic institution of St. Mary of the Lake University/Mundelein Seminary; the Archdiocese of Washington, gathering over 600,000 faithful, with 140 parishes and 90 schools, also supported by the St John Paul II Seminary; and the Archdiocese of Newark, serving 1.3 million Catholics through 211 parishes and 67 schools, alongside a complex formation system that includes the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, St Andrew’s Hall College Seminary and the Redemptoris Mater Seminary.
It is precisely this ecclesial weight that gives the words of Cupich, McElroy and Tobin both political and pastoral significance: not a symbolic gesture, but a decision to bring the debate on American foreign policy back within a public responsibility that, in their view, cannot be separated from the vision set out by Pope Leo XIV. Within this framework, Donald Trump’s approach is generating concern well beyond the borders of the United States, affecting the Holy See and numerous states, not least because some public interventions have adopted tones and methods that resemble the logic of domination more than the posture required of a leader entrusted with guiding one of the world’s major powers.
fr.M.V.
Silere non possum