Posted inNews

Pentagon disputes report senior officials lectured Vatican diplomat about Pope Leo

by Kate Scanlon - OSV News April 9, 2026

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States, is seen at the conclusion of an evening prayer at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City Feb. 5, 2026. Credit: OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The top Vatican diplomat in the U.S. was brought to the Pentagon in January for a “bitter lecture” about comments from Pope Leo XIV that some senior U.S. defense officials perceived as criticism of the Trump administration, The Free Press reported April 6.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon confirmed a meeting took place, but denied the report’s description of that meeting in written comments to OSV News.

Editorial: Trump's threats force Catholics to decide if they will be complicit

 

Editorial

Opinion

Editorial: Trump's threats force Catholics to decide if they will be complicit

NCR Editorial Staff

Why we are not in a Catholic revival, despite increase in adult baptisms

 

April 10, 2026

Why we are not in a Catholic revival, despite increase in adult baptisms

Thomas Reese, Religion News Service  ncr

Posted inNews

US bishops’ leader rebukes Trump after he threatens Iran’s ‘whole civilization will die tonight’

by Kate Scanlon - OSV News April 7, 202

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington April 6, 2026. Trump on April 7 sharply ramped up his threats against Iran, warning "a whole civilization will die tonight" unless the country's leadership strikes a deal that involves reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Credit: OSV News photo/Evan Vucci, Reuters

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — President Donald Trump threatened a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not make a deal by 8 p.m. EDT on April 7 — a statement that drew a stark rebuke within hours from the leader of the U.S. Catholic bishops, who invoked Pope Leo XIV’s recent appeals for peace as he called on the president “to step back from the precipice.”

 

Of Many Things

Trump is showing what a world governed by power alone looks like. It should terrify us.

by Sam Sawyer, S.J. April 8, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington April 6, 2026. Trump on April 7 sharply ramped up his threats against Iran, warning "a whole civilization will die tonight" unless the country's leadership strikes a deal that involves reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Credit: OSV News photo/Evan Vucci, Reuters

The United States’ slow-motion constitutional crisis briefly sped up on April 7, though observers could be forgiven for missing it against the backdrop of the day’s chaos.

As President Donald Trump escalated from his threat against Iran’s civilian infrastructure to an apocalyptic warning that its “whole civilization will die tonight,” many Democratic lawmakers began calling for his impeachment or for the invocation of the 25th Amendment to temporarily suspend a president from office. (Though they did not call for actual consequences, a few Republican legislators did express their disapproval of Mr. Trump’s rhetoric.) The calls for accountability were largely dead on arrival, as impeachment would require a majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate, and the 25th Amendment procedure begins with a majority of cabinet officials declaring the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

Fear is not theology: A bishop's response to the campaign against the synodal church

 

April 9, 2026

Fear is not theology: A bishop's response to the campaign against the synodal church

ncr 

Trump threatened Iran’s ‘whole civilization.’ That’s a war crime—not a just war.

 

Editorials

Trump threatened Iran’s ‘whole civilization.’ That’s a war crime—not a just war.

Should President Trump follow through on his threat of indiscriminate destruction of civilian infrastructure, he will have unambiguously committed a war crime.

by The Editors  America

Pope Leo XIV calls Trump's threat to end Iran 'truly unacceptable'

 

News

Pope Leo XIV calls Trump's threat to end Iran 'truly unacceptable'

Brian Fraga  ncr