Top US Catholic cardinals question morality of American foreign policy

Three U.S. Catholic archbishops on Monday decried the direction of American foreign policy, saying the country's "moral role in confronting evil around the world" was in question and that military action must only be used as an extreme last resort.

"In 2026, the United States has entered into the most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America's actions in the world since the end of the Cold War," the three highest-ranking U.S. Catholic archbishops said in a rare joint statement.

The statement by Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington and Joseph Tobin of Newark, echoes Pope Leo's fiery Vatican speech earlier this month denouncing the world's "zeal for war". Leo, the first U.S. pope, has previously criticized some of U.S. President Donald Trump's policies, in particular on immigration. Citing recent developments in Venezuela, Russia's war in Ukraine and the threats against Greenland by the Trump administration, the archbishops said rights of nations to self-determination appeared "fragile". "The events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland have raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace," the clerics said.

The joint statement did not directly name Trump. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Saying that the U.S. needs a "genuinely moral foreign policy," the archbishops renounced "war as an instrument for narrow national interests" and said that "military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy."