Leader Of US Catholic Bishops Pleads With Trump To Back Down From Total Destruction Of Iran

Archbishop Paul Coakley is asking President Donald Trump to “step back from the precipice of war” with Iran, saying Trump’s threats against the nation “cannot be morally justified.”

Coakley, as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), made his appeal in a statement on Tuesday urging Catholics around the world to join a Vigil for Peace declared by Pope Leo XIV. In that statement, Coakley said that Trump’s public promise to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” if the nation does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz “cannot be morally justified” and that there are “other ways to resolve conflict.”

“I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost,” Coakley wrote. “After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples in Jerusalem, and his first words were ‘Peace be with you.’ As the Holy Father, in his Urbi et Orbi message on Easter reflected, the peace that ‘Jesus gives us is not a peace that merely silences the weapons, but one that touches and transforms the heart of each of us! Let us make heard the cry for peace that springs from our hearts!’”

The Oklahoma City Archbishop pointed to Pope Leo’s appeal for peace during Holy Week, during which he made some intense statements about how God will not answer the prayers of those whose “hands are full of blood.” Coakley asked everyone to join the Pope’s worldwide peace vigil.