Archbishop Paul Coakley is asking President Donald Trump to “step back from the precipice of war” with Iran, saying Trump’s threats against the nation “cannot be morally justified.”
Coakley, as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), made his appeal in a statement on Tuesday urging Catholics around the world to join a Vigil for Peace declared by Pope Leo XIV. In that statement, Coakley said that Trump’s public promise to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” if the nation does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz “cannot be morally justified” and that there are “other ways to resolve conflict.” (RELATED: Israel Sold Trump On War With Shaky Intel Pitch: REPORT)
“I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost,” Coakley wrote. “After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples in Jerusalem, and his first words were ‘Peace be with you.’ As the Holy Father, in his Urbi et Orbi message on Easter reflected, the peace that ‘Jesus gives us is not a peace that merely silences the weapons, but one that touches and transforms the heart of each of us! Let us make heard the cry for peace that springs from our hearts!’”
An interior view of the church that was hit by a rocket inside a residential complex in Ankawa town in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, on March 4, 2026, after joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. (Photo by Osama Al Maqdoni / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)
The Oklahoma City Archbishop pointed to Pope Leo’s appeal for peace during Holy Week, during which he made some intense statements about how God will not answer the prayers of those whose “hands are full of blood.” Coakley asked everyone to join the Pope’s worldwide peace vigil.
“I make a special plea to my brother bishops, the priests, the laity, and all people yearning for true peace to join the Holy Father’s Vigil for Peace, whether virtually, or in parishes, chapels, or before the Lord present in the quiet of their hearts to join with our Holy Father as we pray for peace in our world.”
The Pope reiterated this message while speaking to journalists on Tuesday, saying Trump’s threat was “truly unacceptable.”
“Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran. And this is truly unacceptable,” Pope Leo stated. “There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more, it is a moral question concerning the good of the people as a whole, in its entirety.”
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