Have moral vision in foreign policy, US cardinals tell Trump
ROME—Three US Catholic cardinals urged the Trump administration on Monday to use a moral compass in pursuing its foreign policy, saying US military action in Venezuela, threats of acquiring Greenland and cuts in foreign aid risk bringing vast suffering instead of promoting peace.
In a joint statement, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington and Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., warned that without a moral vision, the current debate over Washington’s foreign policy was mired in “polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests.”
“Most of the United States and the world are adrift morally in terms of foreign policy,” McElroy told The Associated Press (AP). “I still believe the United States has a tremendous impact upon the world.”
Progressive wing
The statement was unusual and marked the second time in as many months that members of the US Catholic hierarchy have asserted their voice against a Trump administration many believe isn’t upholding the basic tenets of human dignity. In November, the entire US conference of Catholic bishops condemned the administration’s mass deportation of migrants and “vilification” of them in the public discourse.
The three cardinals, who are prominent figures in the more progressive wing of the US church, took as a starting point a major foreign policy address that Pope Leo XIV delivered on Jan. 9 to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.
The speech amounted to Leo’s most substantial critique of US foreign policy. The first US-born pope denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide, “completely undermining” peace and the post-World War II international legal order.
