In an unprecedented joint interview, the three U.S. cardinals who are currently leading archdioceses — Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, Washington, D.C. Cardinal Robert McElroy and Newark, New Jersey, Cardinal Joseph Tobin — spoke with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell in a segment for “60 Minutes” last night. They forcefully echoed Pope Leo XIV’s calls for peace and repeated his, and their own, distress about the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies.
Key moments included O’Donnell asking about Iran “Is this a just war?” McElroy replied: “No, in the Catholic teaching this is not a just 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. That’s it.”
Tobin clarified the pope’s role in addressing issues of world concern: “He’s the pastor of the world. He’s not a pundit. So the distinction is he’s not going to pronounce on everything. But he’s going to pronounce on what’s important.”
Asked how he would respond to someone who says they do not want to hear politics from the pulpit, Cupich rejoined: “I say fine. I want to preach the Gospel. God wants us to promote peace in the world — because his desire is that we be one human family.” McElroy added, “What we’re seeing as pastors is an enormous, profound level of human suffering. And that’s what motivates us.”
What shone through in the 20-minute segment is that there is no daylight between Leo and his three most prominent U.S. cardinals. They are going to amplify his teachings and concerns. They, like he, do not want to be painted as any kind of political opposition figure, but they, like he, believe the Gospel has important things to say about what kind of society we Catholics should fashion and when the U.S. government deviates from that vision, they won’t be shy about speaking up.
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Michael Sean Winters, where this article originally appeared.
