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Ave Maria University in Florida will establish a campus in Ireland at the former Mount Melleray Abbey. The Trappist abbey, founded in 1833, closed in 2025.

In a March 7 statement entitled “A Call to Conscience,” Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago denounced the Trump administration for “gamifying” the Iran war.

He wrote:

As more than 1,000 Iranian men, women and children lay dead after days of bombardment from U.S. and Israeli missiles, the official White House X account on Thursday evening posted a video of scenes from popular action movies spliced with actual strike footage from their war on Iran. The clip was captioned: “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY.”

A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game—it’s sickening. Hundreds of people are dead, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, including scores of children who made the fatal mistake of going to school that day. Six U.S. soldiers have been killed. They are also dishonored by that social media post. Hundreds of thousands displaced, and many millions more are terrified across the Middle East ...

Journalists now use the term “gamifying” the war to describe this dynamic ... Our government is treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment, as if it’s just another piece of content to be swiped through while we’re waiting in line at the grocery store. But, in the end, we lose our humanity when we are thrilled by the destructive power of our military.

The cardinal vicar and auxiliary bishops of Rome called on the diocese’s faithful to offer “fervent supplication” for peace.

“Our hearts are deeply troubled and saddened by what is happening in the Middle East and in the many peripheries of the world, where innocent blood flows,” the bishops said in a March 6 statement. “The news coming from those lands, marked by conflicts, bombings, political tensions and deep wounds between peoples, arouses apprehension and pain in all of us.”

“In the face of these tragedies, the Christian community cannot remain indifferent,” they continued. “The Gospel invites us to be close to those who suffer, to share the burden of the trials of our brothers and sisters and to support with prayer those who live in anguish, fear and uncertainty about tomorrow.”

“Our thoughts turn in a particular way to the Christian communities present in those lands, often small but rich in faith, which for centuries have borne witness to the Gospel in difficult contexts and sometimes marked by persecution and instability,” they added.