{"id":374217,"date":"2026-04-04T05:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/374217\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:57:12","slug":"us-military-archbishop-says-iran-conflict-does-not-meet-just-war-standard-us-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/374217\/","title":{"rendered":"US military archbishop says Iran conflict does not meet \u2018just war\u2019 standard | US military"},"content":{"rendered":"

The leader of all Catholic chaplains in the United States\u2019 armed forces has questioned how righteous the US military<\/a>\u2019s campaign in Iran is, saying that \u201cunder the just war theory \u2013 it is not\u201d.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, told CBS News in an interview set for broadcast Sunday that while Iran \u201cwas a threat with nuclear arms\u201d, waging war<\/a> on the theocratic state constituted \u201ccompensating for a threat before the threat is actually realized\u201d.<\/p>\n

The just war theory is a philosophical and legal framework, rooted in the theologies of Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, that is designed to help determine when starting war is morally justifiable \u2013 or jus ad bellum \u2013 and how it should be conducted, or jus in bello.<\/p>\n

It directs that war is a last resort, undertaken only to correct serious wrong, and it requires legitimate authority, right intent, and proportionality in order to obtain peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord Jesus certainly brought a message of peace and also \u2013 I think war is always a last resort,\u201d Broglio told CBS. \u201cI\u2019m not making a judgment about that because I really don\u2019t know. But I do think that it\u2019s hard to cast this war \u2013 you know \u2013 as something that would be sponsored by the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broglio\u2019s comments are likely to inflame political divisions over the war\u2019s justification, particularly among those who are religious and may generally support Donald Trump. The Trump White House maintains that Iran\u2019s history of terrorism sponsorship, coupled with its missile program and production of highly enriched uranium, justifies the action.<\/p>\n

Democrats, however, described it as \u201cwar of choice\u201d and accuse Trump of sidestepping lawmakers\u2019 approval.<\/p>\n

As the war becomes more prolonged, recent polling from YouGov and the Economist<\/a> has found Trump\u2019s approval rating at 35%.<\/p>\n

During a sit-down with Face the Nation recorded in advance of its broadcast, Broglio was asked how he viewed the rhetoric of US defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who has asked Americans to pray \u201cevery day, on bended knee\u201d for a military victory \u201cin the name of Jesus Christ\u201d.<\/p>\n

Broglio said \u201cit\u2019s a little problematic in the sense\u201d that Jesus preached peace and spoke of war in terms of being a last resort.<\/p>\n

But Broglio qualified his position, adding: \u201cThey may have information that led them to think that that was the only choice they had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broglio said he would line himself up with Pope Leo XIV, history\u2019s first US-born Catholic pontiff, \u201cwho has been urging for negotiation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Leo has indeed urged Trump and other leaders to find ways to scale back violence in the Middle East \u2013 and to find an \u201coff-ramp\u201d in the war with Iran.<\/p>\n

In a homily during a mass on Thursday, the pope said that the Christian mission has often been \u201cdistorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ\u201d.<\/p>\n

Broglio said he counseled Catholic service members to \u201cdo as little harm as you can \u2013 and to try [to] preserve innocent lives\u201d. He noted that the way conscientious objection is framed in the US military<\/a>, \u201cyou cannot object to a specific war or a specific action. You can only object to \u2018I\u2019m opposed to war.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe question might be, would generals or admirals have space to perhaps, say, \u2018Can we look at this a different way?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut having spoken to some of them too, they\u2019re also in the same dilemma.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leader of all Catholic chaplains in the United States\u2019 armed forces has questioned how righteous the US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-374217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}