Cardinal Robert McElroy used a Vigil Mass for Peace in Washington on April 11 to condemn the war with Iran as morally indefensible and to urge Catholics to pray and press for an end to the fighting. The liturgy at the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle formed part of the wider response to Pope Leo XIV’s call for prayer amid the conflict.
In his homily, the Archbishop of Washington said Catholic teaching left no room to justify either the outbreak of the war or its continuation. He argued that the conflict had failed the moral tests required by the just-war tradition and called on the faithful to pray that the ceasefire would hold and open the way to a more lasting peace in the Middle East.
