The Roman Catholic archbishop who serves the Archdiocese for the Military Services claimed in an interview released Friday that the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran is unjust and advised Catholic service members in a moral dilemma to “do as little harm as you can.”
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who has ministered to all U.S. military Catholic chaplains since 2007 and is also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, further described claims the Lord approves of the war as “problematic,” according to the interview set to air Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
When asked if the Iran war is justified, Broglio said, “I would think, under the just war theory, it is not, because while there was a threat with nuclear arms, it’s compensating for a threat before the threat is actually realized.”
While Bishop Barron went on Ben Shapiro’s show to soften the pope’s anti-war message and reassure MAGA Catholics that the Holy Father’s words were merely “pastoral,” Broglio sat down with a CBS News anchor and stated flatly that this war does not meet the moral criteria that… pic.twitter.com/W8yCdyGtjI
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Broglio said he would align himself with Pope Leo XIV, who stoked fierce debate for his Palm Sunday homily claiming that God rejects the prayers of those who wage war while quoting the prophet Isaiah’s condemnation of ancient Judah’s leaders for their bloodshed.
The U.S.-born pontiff has repeatedly called for a ceasefire, dialogue and humanitarian aid since the outbreak of the war, describing it last month as a “scandal to the whole human family.”
Broglio acknowledged the complex moral situation U.S. service members who are Catholic might find themselves in by fighting a war that fails to meet the just war criteria of the Catholic Church, but said they are nevertheless generally required to obey.
“Obviously, the way conscientious objection is set up in the United States military, you cannot object to a specific war or a specific action. You can only object to, ‘I’m opposed to war.’ It depends on where you are in the chain of command.”
“Obviously, the Marine who’s given an order, he’s not in a position, really, to resist that order. He has to obey, unless it’s clearly immoral, and then he would probably have to speak to his chaplain, to his chain of command.”
“The question might be, would generals or admirals have space to perhaps say, ‘Can we look at this a different way?'” Broglio continued, but noted he has spoken to higher-ranking military officials who are “also in the same dilemma.”
“I guess my counsel would be to do as little harm as you can, and try to preserve innocent lives,” he added.
Broglio went on to describe the religious rhetoric of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who recently invoked the imprecatory psalms during a Pentagon prayer service while asking God to “pour out your wrath” against the enemies of the U.S., as “a little bit problematic.”
“The Lord Jesus certainly always brought a message of peace, and also, I think war is always a last resort,” he said, though he conceded there might have been military intelligence he is not aware of.
“But I do think that it’s hard to cast this war as something that would be sponsored by the Lord,” he added.
Broglio’s assessment of the Iran conflict echoes Bishop Emeritus Joseph Strickland, who explained to Tucker Carlson during an extensive interview earlier this week why he believes the war in Iran doesn’t meet just war criteria, which was laid out primarily by Augustine of Hippo in the fourth century amid the collapse of the Roman Empire.
“It has to be a real threat, not a perceived threat; not a future threat, but a real threat. It has to be in proportion,” said Strickland, who was removed from his position as bishop of Tyler, Texas, in 2023 by Pope Francis after publicly accusing him of “undermining the Deposit of Faith.”
Strickland explained that a just war must also have a reasonable expectation of success and endeavor not to harm innocents.
“There probably aren’t many wars in human history that would qualify as meeting all the criteria,” he said. “Some meet more than others. But I don’t know that this present conflict — they’re not even calling it a war, and I think that tells us something — but this present conflict, I don’t know that it qualifies on any of those points.”
Fractures appear to be forming among Catholic and Evangelical leaders over the war in Iran as it heads into its fifth week.
Earlier this week, evangelist and Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham pushed back against the pope by likening the war to World War II and citing the example of King David, who Graham noted was a man of war and often invoked God’s aid in battle.
“We know that God does take sides in history, certainly as it relates to biblical history. God gave great favor to David, great wisdom to David, every time he went into battle,” Graham said during an episode of “Piers Morgan Uncensored.”
Avraham Burg, a native Israeli who served in the Israeli Defense Forces and was briefly the interim president of Israel in 2000, dismissed Graham’s application of King David to current events.
Burg noted that even the Old Testament suggests God abhors bloodshed, and that He prohibited David from building the temple because he had “shed so much blood before me on the earth,” according to 1 Chronicles 22:8.
The debate over the moral justification of the Iran war comes as President Donald Trump and the Pentagon have asserted an increasingly bellicose tone while suggesting hostilities are poised to escalate in the coming weeks, including against crucial civilian energy infrastructure.
During an address to the nation on Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. was preparing to hit Iran “extremely hard” and “bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” after which Hegseth tweeted simply: “Back to the Stone Age.”
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
