April 17, 2026
USCCB Attacks J.D. Vance Over Pope
Timothy Birdnow
The U.S. Council of Catholiic Bishops is going after J.D. VAnce for his defense of President Trump over the war in Iran.
No surprise there; the USCCB has always been a leftist institution. But they attack Vance wrongly.
From the MSN article:
"For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war,” read the statement issued by Bishop James Massa, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ doctrine committee.
But that is not what the pope has done, what the Pope has done is attack the Iran war based not on Just War Theory but on his peculiar interpretation of Just War Theory, one which essentially makes any form of war impermissible.
Among the things that make a war just is that you must have been attacked and this Pope claims that didn't happen to the U.S., completely ignoring decades of attacks by Iran and her proxies starting with the seizure of our embassy in Tehran, going through attacks on U.S. servicemen and civilians in multiple places around the globe including the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon (where we had gone to act as peacemakers), to Kobar Towers, to a host of other attacks and culminating in the Iran-backed terror attack on Israel (taking Americans hostage in the process) and two assassination attempts on President Trump. Leo ignored all that with his claim we were not attacked. They sound like attacks to me.
Also, you must attempt to limit civilian casualties and not target civilians. Mr. Trump has bent over backwards to avoid targeting civilians, or their infrastructure. He has largely limited himself to military targets and leadership. In fact had he not this war would be long over but he's tied his hands behind his back and is essentially attacking them by butting his shoulder against them. But he did that to avoid civilian casualties.
And while there has been some collateral damage the fact remains Trump has tried very hard to actually help the Iranian People, who he is trying to liberate as much as he is trying to protect our people.
The fact is the Iranian regime murdered 40,000 of their own citizens to hold onto power and neither the Pope nor the Council of Catholic Biships called them out for it, but they are eager to call out the President and Mr. Vance for resisting.
Just war theory is more than satisfied in this. In fact it is a holy quest, one that mercy and Christian love demands of us. Turning our backs on the Iranian People is the unchristian thing to do.
Also, in the era of nuclear weapons you don't just sit and wait for an enemy to attack with those weapons. Pre-emption is a necessary component of warfare in the modern era, and that should be obvious to even the dimmest among us.
The article continues:
Pope Leo has expressed opposition to the war in favor of peace negotiations and said in an April 10 social media post that those who are disciples of Christ are "never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
What does Pope Leo think we've been doing? Trump offered them every chance to negotiate before the war started, and has offered them repeated ceasefires so negotiations may continue. What Trump is not willing to do is be played for a chump, something the Iranians are trying to do. They want a ceasefire so they can rebuild and rearm and the USCCB and Pope Leo apparently think that is our duty, to let them.
This kind of pig-ignorant pacifism is astonishing in today's world. Christianity is not a suicide pact, nor is it a doctrine for weenies.
Let us look at some Biblical passages about such matters:
Ecclesiastes 3:8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Jeremiah 51:20"You are my hammer and weapon of war: with you I break nations in pieces; with you I destroy kingdoms;
Exodus 15:3The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.
Ephesians 6:12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Deuteronomy 20:1-4"When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’
Proverbs 21:31The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.
Psalm 144:1-2Of David. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
Romans 13:4For he (the King) is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
Psalm 144:1Of David. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
Matthew 10:34"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Joel 3:9-10Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, "I am a warrior.”
Joel 3:9Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.
Luke 22:36 ESV / 70 helpful votesHe said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.
Luke 12:51Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
Psalm 18:39For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me.
You get the idea; the Bible is chock-full of passages about warfare and the need for it. God often commanded Israel to wage wars, especially against the Amalekites, whom He ordered Israel to destroy utterly (genocide).
Warfare, though, is clearly a power granted to nations and to national governments and not to the individual. People are not to wage private wars and that is obvious. Sadly Pope Leo and the USCCB fail to understand this distinction and try to apply the passages where Jesus called for mercy and restraint to any and all situations - something not intended at all. People forgive People - nations wage wars to compel behavior. It's a world of difference.
As Rush Limbaugh used to say, this is a world governed by the aggressive use of force. You can wish it weren't so and try to not be the one to start trouble but in the end you had better be strong enough and have enough grit to finish it or you will be enslaved to the ones who don't hold to your pacifist views. (Speaking of slaves, every one of them brought to the Americas from Africa were losers in a war with other Africans or with Arab slave traders; few of them were just captured while coming home from fishing or whatnot by white slavers.) As it was once said, those who beat their swords into ploughshares will plough for those who kept their swords.
No matter how ivory-tower liberals like this Pope and the USCCB may wish it not so it is a fact and we are called to be "wise as serpents" if we are to follow Christ. That will occasionally require military action. In this case we are engaged in a very moral, righteous military action. That should be apparent even to a spiritually occluded man like Pope Leo.
But of course this isn't about Iran but about President Trump and the MAGA movement. Leo was put there to splinter the MAGA movement, to break Catholics away from it. Watch his future statements; it will often be about unity and our place in a broader world and about how we have no right to look to our own nation, even while he has condemned this President for doing precisely that.
Many Catholic theologians over the centuries have believed the False Prophet - the spiritual leader who would throw his weight behind the Beast aka Antichrist - would be a Pope. Given the sharp Left turn the Papacy has made I can truly believe that.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:05 AM
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