Cardinals urge moral compass in US foreign policy

In November, the entire U.S. conference of Catholic bishops condemned the administration's mass deportation of migrants and "vilification" of them in the public discourse.The three cardinals, who are prominent figures in the more progressive wing of the U.S. church, took as a starting point a major foreign policy address that Pope Leo XIV delivered Jan. 9 to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.The speech, delivered almost entirely in English, amounted to Leo's most substantial critique of U.S. foreign policy. History's first U.S.-born pope denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide, "completely undermining" peace and the post-World War II international legal order.Leo didn't name individual countries, but his speech came against the backdrop of the then-recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicolás Maduro from power, U.S. threats to take Greenland as well as Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was consulted on the statement, and its president, Archbishop Paul Coakley, "supports the emphasis placed by the cardinals on Pope Leo's teaching in these times," said spokesperson Chieko Noguchi.The White House didn't immediately respond to the AP's request for comment on Monday.Cardinals question the use of forceThe three cardinals cited Venezuela, Greenland and Ukraine in their statement — saying they "raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace" — as well as the cuts to foreign aid that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration initiated last year. On Greenland, Trump has argued repeatedly that the U.S. needs control of the resource-rich island, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, for its national security.The Trump administration last year significantly gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development, saying its projects advance a liberal agenda and were a waste of money.Tobin, who ministered in more than 70 countries as a Redemptorist priest and the order's superior general, lamented the retreat in USAID assistance, saying U.S. philanthropy makes a big difference in everything from hunger to health.The three cardinals said their key aim wasn't to criticize the administration, but rather to encourage the U.S. to regain its moral standing in the world by pursuing a foreign policy that is ethically guided and seeks the common good.

Author: Nicole Winfield And Giovanna Dell'orto Associated Press

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