ROME – Three U.S. Catholic cardinals urged the Trump administration on Monday to use a moral compass in pursuing its foreign policy, saying U.S. military action in Venezuela, threats to acquire Greenland and cuts in foreign aid risk bringing vast suffering instead of promoting peace.
In a joint statement, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of San Diego and Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., warned that without a moral vision, the current debate over Washington's foreign policy was mired in “polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests.”
“Most of the United States and the world are adrift morally in terms of foreign policy,” McElroy told The Associated Press. “I still believe the United States has a tremendous impact upon the world.”
The statement was unusual and marked the second time in as many months that members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy have voiced concerns about a Trump administration many believe is not upholding basic tenets of human dignity. In November, the entire U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the administration’s mass deportation of migrants and “vilification” of them in public discourse.
The three cardinals, prominent figures in the more progressive wing of the U.S. church, drew on a major foreign policy address that Pope Leo XIV delivered Jan. 9 to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.
Delivered almost entirely in English, the speech was Leo’s most substantial critique of U.S. foreign policy. History’s first U.S.-born pope denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide, “completely undermining” peace and the post‑World War II international legal order.
Leo did not name individual countries, but the remarks came after the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicolás Maduro from power, U.S. threats to acquire Greenland and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was consulted on the cardinals’ statement, and its president, Archbishop Paul Coakley, “supports the emphasis placed by the cardinals on Pope Leo’s teaching in these times,” said spokesperson Chieko Noguchi.
The White House didn't respond to the AP's request for comment.
