Top Catholic Clerics Voice Strong Dissent on US Foreign Policy

The three highest-ranking Roman Catholic clerics who lead archdioceses in the United States said in a strongly worded statement on Monday that America’s “moral role in confronting evil around the world” is in question for the first time in decades. Their critique of the Trump administration’s principles — while not mentioning President Trump by name — escalates the American Catholic Church’s denunciations of the country’s top leaders. In 2026, the country has entered “the most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America’s actions in the world since the end of the Cold War,” read the unusual statement issued by Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington; and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark. Citing recent events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland as having raised fundamental questions about the use of military force, the cardinals call for a “genuinely moral foreign policy” in which “military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.” The cardinals did not delve into policy details, and declined to offer specifics about the countries mentioned in the statement. They specifically frame their statement as a message larger than partisan categories. But the context is clear. The president has threatened to take over Greenland “the hard way.” In Venezuela, the Trump administration has ordered U.S. troops to attack boats it says traffic in narcotics, and U.S. forces captured and extracted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife without authorization by Congress.