<\/p>\n
Three cardinals in the US Catholic church have criticized the Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s foreign policy, saying its push to obtain or otherwise seize Greenland<\/a>, recent military action in Venezuela<\/a>, and cuts to humanitarian aid risk \u201cdestroying international relations and plunging the world into incalculable suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOur country\u2019s moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination,\u201d said a joint statement<\/a> from Blase Cupich, Robert McElroy and Joseph Tobin, respectively the archbishops of Chicago, Washington DC, and Newark, New Jersey.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the building of just and sustainable peace, so crucial to humanity\u2019s wellbeing now and in the future, is being reduced to partisan categories that encourage polarization and destructive policies,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n Without naming Donald Trump, the statement on Monday continued: \u201cWe seek a foreign policy that respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n It was the second time in two months that higher-ups in the US Catholic church \u2013 with more than 50 million members \u2013 asserted their belief that the president\u2019s administration had been failing to uphold basic human dignity.<\/p>\n In November, about six months after Pope Leo XIV became the church\u2019s first American-born pontiff, the US\u2019s Catholic bishops conference had collectively condemned Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign, as well as its \u201cvilification\u201d of immigrants to justify it.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in a 9 January speech at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV had expressed a concern over how \u201ca diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWar is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading,\u201d Leo said in his speech<\/a>, less than a week after the US military action in Venezuela and amid Trump\u2019s fixation on Greenland. \u201cPeace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one\u2019s own dominion. This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence.\u201d<\/p>\n Somewhat similarly, the statement from Cupich, McElroy and Tobin said \u201cwe renounce war as an instrument for narrow national interests and proclaim that military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement alluded to the pre-dawn 3 January attack in Caracas that saw US forces capture Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> on drug-related charges. It also referred to Trump\u2019s decision to reduce foreign aid after the start of his second presidency early in January 2025, his more recent threats to take Greenland<\/a> for the US forcefully if necessary, and Russia\u2019s ongoing war in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the cardinals\u2019 statement, those events together had ignited \u201cthe most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America\u2019s actions in the world since the end of the cold war\u201d.<\/p>\n In comments attributed to him that accompanied the joint statement, Tobin said eschewing \u201cpeaceful relations among nations\u201d risked \u201cescalating threats and armed conflict \u2026 destroying international relations and plunging the world into incalculable suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot stand by while decisions are made that condemn millions to live trapped permanently at the edge of existence,\u201d Cupich remarked separately.<\/p>\n McElroy, for his part, added: \u201cIn our current national debate about the fundamental contours of American foreign policy, we ignore this reality at the cost of our country\u2019s truest interests and the best traditions of this land that we love.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the statement.<\/p>\n Trump has insisted that capturing Maduro was legal and necessary for national security. With regards to Greenland<\/a>, Trump has maintained that the US needs control of the resource-rich island, a semiautonomous region of Nato ally Denmark, for its national security as well.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has previously said it gutted the US Agency for International Development<\/a> because its projects were financially wasteful while advancing a liberal agenda that the president opposed. And, according to reporting from Reuters, Trump recently said<\/a> it was Ukraine holding up a peace deal ending the war within its borders rather than Russia, which invaded it in February 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Catholic #cardinals #warn #foreign #policy #Trump #risks #global #suffering #Trump #administration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three cardinals in the US Cath… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}