Yesterday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement defending Pope Leo xiv’s teachings on war and peace after U.S. Vice President JD Vance publicly questioned them. The first American pontiff said on April 10:

God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, argued that such statements overlook the Catholic Church’s long-standing just war theory and pointed to World War ii as an example, asking how God could not have been on the side of the Allies as they fought Nazi Germany and liberated Holocaust concentration camps.

• Vance added that the pope should “be careful” when opining on theology and ensure such comments are “anchored in the truth.”

On Wednesday, Bishop James Massa, chairman of the U.S. Bishops Committee on Doctrine, stated that the Roman Catholic Church permits “just war” only in strict cases of legitimate self-defense against an aggressor who is actively waging war, only after all reasonable efforts to achieve peace have failed, and said that the pontiff’s comments align with this.

• Massa also stressed that the pope was speaking as the supreme pastor of the universal church; he was not merely offering personal opinions but was rather exercising his authority as the “vicar of Christ.”

Notwithstanding, Vice President Vance has raised a legitimate criticism.

• The Islamic Republic of Iran has spent the last 47 years waging war on America, Israel and the Western world through murderous terrorist atrocities, destabilization, threats and pursuit of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. Like the Nazi regime, the Islamist regime poses a threat to the U.S. and even more so to Israel.
• Negotiations and diplomacy, which have heavily favored Iran—and which Iran has repeatedly violated, have been exhausted.
• The current conflict constitutes “strict cases of legitimate self-defense against an aggressor,” and the Vatican’s stark refusal to acknowledge this and effectively aid the Iranians is morally reprehensible.

British journalist Melanie Phillips wrote on Monday:

The pope’s refusal to support a war to end one of the world’s greatest evils has called to mind the disturbing example of Pope Pius xii during the Holocaust. In 1933, he signed the Reich Concordat, which secured for the German Catholic Church protection from the Nazis and effectively bought its silence over the extermination of the Jews. Arguably, Leo’s stance is yet more shocking, because even Pius didn’t say it was morally wrong to fight Hitler.

Bible prophecies in Isaiah 47 and Revelation 17 foretell a future military conflict between the U.S. and a Catholic-dominated Holy Roman Empire. Despite 56 percent of American Catholic voters supporting Donald Trump in the last election, we are about to see hostility between the U.S. government and the Vatican escalate rapidly. Washington and Rome are on a collision course.