Saint Joseph Catholic Church

“In the Catholic teaching this is not a just war,” Cardinal McElroy said of the Iran war. “The Catholic faith teaches us there are certain prerequisites for a just war. You can’t go for a variety of different aims. You have to have a focused aim, which is to restore justice and restore peace.”

The Iranian regime is “an abominable regime, and it should be removed,” Cardinal McElroy continued. “But this is a war of choice that we went to, and I think it’s embedded in a wider moment in the United States that’s worrying, which is this: we’re seeing before us the possibility of war after war after war.”

Asked why he called ICE a “lawless organization,” Cardinal Tobin said:

I didn’t say that they were people without law. But when people act in this way, when they have to hide their identities to terrify people, when they can actually violate other guarantees of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, well I think somebody’s got to call that out and I’m not the only one.

“It is no coincidence that the motto of this journey is ‘Peace be with you’—a greeting we also offer in Arabic: ‘Assalamu alaykoum,’” Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, O.P., wrote in an article for the Vatican newspaper. “We welcome the Pope, for he is a man of peace; yet, in a world like ours today—where are the men of peace? Are there any others?”

Cardinal Vesco added:

The Algerian people will surely welcome him with warmth and deep emotion; for them, personality counts above all else—it is the exchange of glances that truly touches the heart. They possess the immense quality of being easily moved; they have the capacity to let everything unfold within the gaze—and, consequently, within the heart.

And I have no doubt that the gaze they will encounter—the gaze the Pontiff will cast upon them, and upon our country—will leave no heart untouched by indifference.

At the conclusion of his midday Regina Caeli address today, Pope Leo XIV extended Easter greetings to Eastern Christians and called for peace in Ukraine, Lebanon, and Sudan.

Pope Leo XIV emphasized today in his Regina Caeli address (video) that “the Sunday Eucharist is indispensable to the Christian life.”

President Macron said after the audience that he and Pope Leo share a “common conviction: in the face of the world’s divisions, action for peace is a duty and a requirement.”

The French president also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations. According to a Vatican statement, the parties discussed “important international issues, with an exchange of views on conflict situations in the world, hoping that peaceful coexistence can be reestablished through dialogue and negotiation.”

Pope Leo XIV received the members of the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church as they prepared to elect a new Patriarch and urged them to elect a “father in faith” and “man of the Beatitudes” who seeks to build communion in charity.

Pope Leo XIV presided at the recitation of the holy Rosary for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica this evening (booklet, video) and emphasized the importance of prayer as he called upon national leaders to stop waging war.