More than 80 theologians, educators urge US bishops to publicly oppose Iran war

(OSV News) — Over 80 theologians are urging the nation’s Catholic bishops to publicly oppose the U.S. war on Iran, days before the bishops are set to gather for their annual fall meeting.

“More than seven months into this de-humanizing war, we respectfully ask you and your brother bishops to speak with still greater clarity, urgency, and unity against further warfare and to offer a compelling public witness to the nonviolence of the Gospels and ways of just peace,” said the group in its Nov. 9 open letter.

The initiative was spearheaded by Kevin Ahern, chair and professor of religious studies at Manhattan University, and Eli McCarthy, adjunct lecturer in theology and religious studies, as well as justice and peace, at Georgetown University.

“We are inviting the U.S. bishops toward the style of response and reasoning that Pope Leo has modeled with his call for ‘unarmed and disarming’ approaches,” said McCarthy in an emailed statement to OSV News, referencing a phrase Pope Leo XIV first used in his “urbi et orbi” blessing, moments after his election.

“As Americans we have a lot of power in this moment and as Catholic leaders the Gospel compels us to act,” Ahern told OSV News in emailed comments.

The U.S. and Israel jointly launched the war Feb. 28, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior leaders. U.S. President Donald Trump described the attacks as part of “major combat operations” to overthrow Iran’s regime in order to “defend the American people.”

The war has seen 23 U.S. troops killed and 865 wounded, with over 1,700 Iranian civilians — among them at least 254 children — and some 1,220 Iranian troops slain. More than 700 other Iranian fatalities remain unclassified. The Pentagon recently estimated the war’s financial toll at over $47 billion.

Several U.S. bishops have already spoken out against the war, with Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington and Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark doing so in a nationally broadcast interview and in a joint statement.

Ahern and McCarthy are among the letter’s 83 signatories, which include 77 U.S.-based and nine international scholars and persons of faith. In addition to McCarthy, four of the scholars are on the faculty of Georgetown University.

Also signing the document are professors of varying ranks at schools such as Boston College, The Catholic University of America, DePaul University, Fordham University and Loyola Marymount University.

The signatories express their “deep concern” about the war with Iran and “the growing danger of renewed or expanded hostilities.”

Citing “the grave suffering caused by this war and the wider conflict that is engulfing Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and beyond,” they pointed to Pope Francis’ observation, first made in 2014, of a third world war “fought piecemeal.”

The letter asks the bishops to take 10 specific steps ahead of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall plenary assembly, which will be held Nov. 16-19 in Baltimore.

Those steps include publicly opposing both “any renewal or expansion of military operations against Iran” and “the unprecedented expansion of the US Pentagon budget.”

Signatories petitioned the bishops to “use the Church’s moral influence to press elected officials to prioritize diplomacy” and humanitarian aid while acknowledging “responsibility for harm,” supporting nonviolent resistance and nuclear disarmament, and committing to “the long-term work of reconciliation rather than military escalation and arms sales.”

They also encouraged the bishops to “attend to Catholics presently in the military as they discern their consciences and respond accordingly, including by disobeying unjust and unloving orders.”

In a January radio interview, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services said that U.S. soldiers could legitimately disobey orders to participate in a Trump-administration proposed invasion of Greenland. The prospect waned after the U.S. signed a trilateral September security agreement with Greenland’s semiautonomous government and the nation of Denmark.

The letter asks the bishops to “encourage political leaders to re-humanize our adversaries and resist language that demonizes entire nations or peoples or those calling for peace in the region.”

The signatories also pressed the bishops to “insist upon the protection of all people, rejection of nuclear threats, and unrestricted access to humanitarian assistance.”

The letter’s remaining action points focused on cultivating prayer, fasting, an understanding of Church teaching on peace and nonviolence, and public witness to counter war, while seeking to “break cycles of violence, engage in conflict constructively, and build sustainable peace.”

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