{"id":13836,"date":"2026-01-23T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T22:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-cardinals-urge-a-moral-compass-in-foreign-policy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:41:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:41:02","slug":"u-s-cardinals-urge-a-moral-compass-in-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-cardinals-urge-a-moral-compass-in-foreign-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. cardinals urge a moral compass in foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"This
This combo shows, from left, cardinal Robert McElroy, cardinal Joseph Tobin and cardinal Blase Cupich. (The Associated Press)<\/span>Gregorio Borgia\/Gregory Bull<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ROME \u2013 Three U.S. Catholic cardinals urged the Trump administration on Monday to use a moral compass in pursuing its foreign policy, saying U.S. military action in Venezuela, threats to acquire Greenland and cuts in foreign aid risk bringing vast suffering instead of promoting peace.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of San Diego and Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., warned that without a moral vision, the current debate over Washington’s foreign policy was mired in \u201cpolarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the United States and the world are adrift morally in terms of foreign policy,\u201d McElroy told The Associated Press. \u201cI still believe the United States has a tremendous impact upon the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement was unusual and marked the second time in as many months that members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy have voiced concerns about a Trump administration many believe is not upholding basic tenets of human dignity. In November, the entire U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the administration\u2019s mass deportation of migrants and \u201cvilification\u201d of them in public discourse.<\/p>\n

The three cardinals, prominent figures in the more progressive wing of the U.S. church, drew on a major foreign policy address that Pope Leo XIV delivered Jan. 9 to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.<\/p>\n

Delivered almost entirely in English, the speech was Leo\u2019s most substantial critique of U.S. foreign policy. History\u2019s first U.S.-born pope denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide, \u201ccompletely undermining\u201d peace and the post\u2011World War II international legal order.<\/p>\n

Leo did not name individual countries, but the remarks came after the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from power, U.S. threats to acquire Greenland and Russia\u2019s ongoing war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was consulted on the cardinals\u2019 statement, and its president, Archbishop Paul Coakley, \u201csupports the emphasis placed by the cardinals on Pope Leo\u2019s teaching in these times,\u201d said spokesperson Chieko Noguchi.<\/p>\n

The White House didn’t respond to the AP’s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

combo shows, from left, cardinal Robert McElroy, cardinal Joseph Tobin and cardinal Blase Cupich. (The Associated Press)Gregorio Borgia\/Gregory Bull ROME \u2013 Three U.S. Catholic cardinals urged the Trump administration on Monday to use a moral compass in pursuing its foreign policy, saying U.S. military action in Venezuela, threats to acquire Greenland and cuts in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19185,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13836\/revisions\/19185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13836"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}