When President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran this week, his move followed global pressure to end the fighting — including appeals from Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff. Born Robert Prevost and raised in Chicago, the 70-year-old pope, once known as Father Bob, is generally measured and soft-spoken but has become more willing to criticize U.S. policies he views as morally troubling.
Three influential American cardinals who know him well — Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark — gave a rare joint interview explaining why Pope Leo and the U.S. church have spoken out on the Iran conflict and on recent immigration enforcement actions.
“Peace be with you,” the pope said when he took office, words that resonated with many of the nation’s 53 million Catholics. The cardinals said his Chicago roots and pastoral focus have energized U.S. Catholics and sharpened attention to the church’s moral voice.
They stressed that the pope, as pastor of the global church, does not weigh in on every political question but will speak firmly on what he deems grave moral issues. Early in his pontificate he criticized U.S. military action in Venezuela, a comment that led to a meeting between the Vatican’s ambassador to Washington and Pentagon officials — a session both sides called routine, though two church sources described it as tense.
On a trip to Italy in March, Pope Leo said he was praying for peace in the Middle East and argued a ceasefire would be the most effective path to a just solution. Since then his language has grown more pointed: he publicly condemned President Trump’s threat to “destroy Iranian civilization,” calling such rhetoric “truly unacceptable,” and urged Catholics and others to contact political leaders to push for peace and oppose war.
The pope usually avoids naming political figures directly, but his Palm Sunday homily pushed back against framing the conflict in religious terms, warning that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”
The cardinals were frank about the Iran war. Cardinal McElroy said it fails Catholic just-war criteria: a just war, he said, must be narrowly aimed at restoring justice and peace, whereas this conflict looks like “a war of choice.” He described Iran’s government as an “abominable regime” that should not be ignored, but warned that military action now risks triggering broader, cascading conflicts.
Cardinal Cupich criticized how the White House has presented the conflict on social media, calling the style “gamification” that slices footage of violence and turns suffering into spectacle. “It is sickening,” he said, arguing that such depiction strips victims of their humanity and distorts American values.
Pope Leo’s vocal stance, the cardinals said, has encouraged them to raise their voices on other urgent matters, particularly immigration and recent mass deportation efforts. In January, Cardinal Tobin labeled Immigration and Customs Enforcement “a lawless organization,” a phrase he defended as a response to tactics he views as terrorizing and sometimes violating constitutional rights. Cardinal McElroy described clergy ministering to immigrant communities living in fear; he said Spanish-language Mass attendance in his archdiocese fell roughly 30 percent year over year because people were too afraid to come.
McElroy, who formerly led the Diocese of San Diego, said enforcement had become “out of control,” with wide-ranging roundups affecting people who had lived stable lives in the U.S., many with U.S.-born children. He said the church’s objection is not to secure borders — he supports strong border policy — but to indiscriminate mass deportations that separate families and punish long-term contributors to society.
Cardinal Cupich asked whether Catholics truly endorse blanket deportations, suggesting many voters did not intend to support such policies. When parishioners tell clergy they prefer not to hear politics in church, Cupich replied that preaching the Gospel inherently includes promoting peace and recognizing all people as part of one human family. McElroy added that pastors are compelled to speak by the sight of profound human suffering.
The interview also underscored Pope Leo’s attention to practical care for migrants. At Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer estate southeast of Rome, the Vatican has opened a job-training center for migrants and vulnerable locals. Father Manny Dorantes, a Chicago priest and immigrant who helped open the estate to the public under Pope Francis, said Pope Leo embraced the project, encouraging it to move “full force ahead.”
The center teaches sustainable farming, gardening and cooking on the estate where the pope spends rest days. Organizers aim to train about 1,000 migrants and other vulnerable people a year — a modest local total but one that could be scaled if dioceses adopted similar programs. The first graduating class included refugees and migrants from around the world, including a young West African man who survived the treacherous crossing to Lampedusa, the Mediterranean island where so many lives have been lost.
Pope Leo’s planned July 4 visit to Lampedusa, coinciding with America’s 250th birthday, was read by the cardinals as a gesture of solidarity with the marginalized. Cardinal Cupich said the pope prioritizes being with the downtrodden; Cardinal Tobin noted the visit’s symbolic resonance for Americans, recalling a joking image of an island resident holding up a torch bearing a “Welcome” message.
The U.S. church has seen renewed engagement in 2026, with upticks in conversions and attendance in some dioceses. Cardinal Tobin credited Pope Leo with energizing people, saying each pope meets a particular moment and that Leo is the right leader for this time.
The cardinals’ readiness to speak publicly, they said, reflects a mix of pastoral concern and moral urgency shaped by Pope Leo’s example: calling for peace in war, defending migrants and challenging policies they regard as unjust or dehumanizing.
Produced by Keith Sharman, Julie Morse Goff and Roxanne Feitel. Field producer: Anna Matranga. Broadcast associates: Grace Conley, Callie Teitelbaum. News associate: Julia C. Doyle. Edited by Peter M. Berman.