In an article published by Religion News Service (RNS), Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., bishop president of Pax Christi USA, spoke out against the violent rhetoric used earlier this week by President Trump to threaten Iran.
Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, who is bishop president of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi USA, told RNS in a text message that Trump is “every day” surpassing “his previous outrageous statements.” Stowe said, “I never thought I would hear a US president publicly threaten to annihilate a civilization.
“Someone in government needs to restrain him before he does more irreparable damage. The US cannot exempt itself from restrictions on war crimes,” he wrote.
Also quoted in the article is Art Laffin, Pax Christi USA’s 2016 Teacher of Peace: Trump’s remarks are “’an affront to God and a crime against humanity,’ and he urged faith leaders to speak out against the threat of military action.”
Photo at left, l-to-r: Pax Christi USA National Council member Frank Panopoulos; Dan Moriarty with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; and Art Laffin at an emergency public witness near the White House on Tuesday evening, April 7.
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- Invitation from Pope Leo to join prayer vigil on April 11
Faith leaders denounce Trump’s ‘civilization will die’ threat
Written by Fiona Murphy, Aleja Hertzler-McCain and Ulaa Kuziez, published by Religion News Service, April 7, 2026
In the hours before President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war with Iran, religious leaders across faith traditions responded with alarm after the president’s message Tuesday morning (April 7) warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
In response, X and other social media platforms were flooded with reactions from lawmakers, clergy and faith leaders.
The deadline, originally set for 8 PM Eastern Daylight Time, was being described by the Trump administration as a last chance for Iran to agree to US demands tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for the world’s oil and gas. If Iran did not comply, Trump warned the US could carry out military strikes on major infrastructure targets.
Pope Leo XIV, who has made speaking up for peace a cornerstone of his early, sometimes soft-spoken papacy, called Trump’s threat targeting “all the people” of Iran “truly unacceptable,” as he was leaving Castel Gandolfo, his country house in Italy.
“I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved,” Leo said, “to contact the authorities — political leaders, congressmen — to ask them, to tell them, to work for peace and to reject war and violence.”
Advocacy groups and religious leaders in the US were also quick to denounce Trump’s comments, criticizing his threats to attack civilian infrastructure.
Several US Catholic bishops echoed Leo’s comments on social media. The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, also used unusually strong rhetoric in responding. Coakley said in a statement that “the threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified.”
“There are other ways to resolve conflict between peoples,” the archbishop wrote. “I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost.”
The USCCB has often avoided directly naming Trump in its criticism of his policies, including in special messages opposing indiscriminate mass deportation, which makes Coakley’s choice to call on Trump directly stand out. …
In his statement, Coakley invited US Catholics to join Pope Leo XIV’s prayer vigil for peace on Saturday in their parishes, virtually or in individual prayer.
Since the US-Israeli war with Iran began at the end of February, more than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 1,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, The Associated Press reported. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, 23 people have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 US military members have been killed. …
Read the article in its entirety here on the RNS website.
Thank you to Pope Leo and the Bishops for speaking out against these threats to humanity by the U.S. President, which is totally unacceptable. We must demand peace.
Previously, my comments have chided the majority of our bishops as hopelessly pusillanimous. Now, even impatient I must laud our bishop president of the USCCB for whom his decision to contradict Big Brother directly must have been excruciating. To have none other than Archbishop Coakley coinciding with courageous Bishop Stowe, Art Laffin, Frank Panopoulos and Dan Moriarty is nothing less than remarkable. Will he take the next logically ethical step and direct all dioceses to divest their multi million dollar portfolios of any financial product that aids and abets the Israeli and American war machines?
David-Ross Gerling, PhD