The Catholic church’s most senior U.S. leaders have issued a damning statement warning the “moral foundation” of the nation’s policies is in jeopardy.
The unprecedented statement came from the country’s three serving cardinal archbishops after they held talks in recent days at the Vatican with Pope Leo XIV, suggesting his approval for their dire warning that “polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests” threaten the moral base of U.S. public policy. It was posted prominently on the Vatican’s homepage.
The trio—Cardinals Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington D.C., and Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, New Jersey—did not name Donald Trump in their statement.
But they tore into “events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland,” mentioned the need for international aid which Trump’s administration has torn apart, and said, “military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.”
It came on the day that Trump’s message to the Norwegian prime minister demanding “Complete and Total Control of Greenland” was exposed, with it saying, “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”
The Catholic leaders offered little room for doubt about who they were talking about.
“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,” they said in the statement. “The events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland have raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace. Our country’s moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination.”
The use of the term “moral role” appeared especially pointed after Trump told the New York Times that “my morality,” not the law or the constitution, was the only constraint on his use of power.
The Catholic leaders’ statement said they were inspired by Pope Leo, and added in a particularly pointed section, “He points to the need for international aid to safeguard the most central elements of human dignity, which are under assault because of the movement by wealthy nations to reduce or eliminate their contributions to humanitarian foreign assistance programs.”
One of the Trump administration’s first actions on taking office was to dismantle USAID, something done gleefully by Elon Musk in his role at the head of his Department of Government Efficiency. That action had the approval of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio, a devout Catholic, is now technically USAID administrator, but presides over a tiny rump of the organization.
The cardinal archbishops’ statement has no precedent in modern times and comes amid increasing tension between the Catholic church and the Trump administration, which contains a high number of members of the church. Among them are recent Catholic convert Vice President JD Vance, who sparred publicly with Pope Francis and Pope Leo over the meaning of Catholic social teaching.
Earlier this month, the National Catholic Reporter said his description of Renee Nicole Good—the mom killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis—as a “domestic terrorist” was a “moral stain,” and that his embrace of the faith was “little more than a political prop.”
A series of Catholic dioceses have also clashed with the Trump administration over immigration policy, with some giving the faithful exemptions from attending Sunday mass so they are not picked up by ICE.
The three top church leaders signaled in their statement that they will increasingly join the political fray in the run-up to the mid-term elections, writing, “Our nation’s debate on the moral foundation for American policy is beset by polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests. Pope Leo has given us the prism through which to raise it to a much higher level. We will preach, teach, and advocate in the coming months to make that higher level possible.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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