Smoke over Tehran following US and Israeli strikes on oil facilities on 8 March

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Patrick Hudson, 09 March 2026

The Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich called a US government video about the war ‘sickening’ because it uses ‘the suffering of Iranians as a backdrop for our own entertainment’.

The widening war in the Middle East is “deeply disturbing”, Pope Leo said, as Iran attacked targets across the region in response to continued US and Israeli strikes.

“In addition to the episodes of violence and devastation as well as the widespread climate of hatred and fear, there is also the concern that the conflict will spread and that other countries in the region, including beloved Lebanon, may again sink back into instability,” the Pope said in his address after the Angelus on Sunday.

He prayed “that the thunderous sound of bombs may cease, weapons may fall silent and a space for dialogue may open up in which the voice of the people can be heard”, and that Our Lady “may intercede for those who suffer because of war and lead hearts along the paths of reconciliation and hope”.

Late that day, he visited the Church of Our Lady of the Presentation in western Rome, where he told parishioners: “God wants us all to be peacemakers.”

Speaking to young people in the parish, he asked them “to recognise that we are all able to be builders of peace and supporters of reconciliation” and to promote peace in small ways in their own lives, such as resolving arguments.

“We can seek and find an agreement in a manner, so to speak, of peace, not of war, not of violence – never – [and] without bullying,” he said.

On Saturday, the Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich issued a statement calling a US government video about the war “sickening”.

“A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game,” the cardinal said, after a White House social media account published a video combining footage from strikes on Iran with clips from popular action films.

“This horrifying portrayal demonstrates that we now live in an era when the distance between the battlefield and the living room has been drastically reduced,” Cupich said.

“Our government is treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment, as if it’s just another piece of content to be swiped through while we’re waiting in line at the grocery store.”

Church leaders across the world condemned the violence as the war escalated in the days after the strikes on Tehran on 28 February which killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following Pope Leo’s appeal for peace the next day.

“The ongoing grave crisis marks a further weakening of the rules-based international order and a continued disregard for international law,” said a statement on Tuesday from Archbishop Mariano Crociata, president of the EU bishops’ commission Comece.

“It is profoundly troubling that recourse to violence once again takes precedence over diplomatic efforts,” he said. “Moreover, the current situation demonstrates that the logic of retaliation and revenge risks fuelling a spiral of violence, endangering regional and global stability, potentially leading to a tragedy of immense proportions.”

A statement from the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences called for “interreligious solidarity, especially among leaders of the great religious traditions present in the region, to witness together to the sacredness of life”.

Speaking to Vatican News on Saturday, the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako said he was “deeply concerned” about the effect of the war across the Middle East, particularly on its dwindling Christian population. The Chaldean Catholic Church is the largest denomination among Iraq’s Christians.

“We fear a further escalation that could drag us into a large-scale regional war,” the patriarch said. “War is not the solution.”

He continued: “I have asked Muslim leaders to raise their voices for peace and fraternity, as Pope Francis did during his visit to Iraq [in 2021] and his meeting with Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani.”

On Sunday, the clerical council responsible for electing a successor to Ayatollah Khamenei chose his son Mojitaba, with state outlets urging all Iranian citizens, “especially the elites and intellectuals of the seminaries and universities”, to pledge allegiance to the new leadership.

Following the strikes that killed Ali Khamenei, the Conventual Franciscans reported that they had lost contact with the Archbishop of Tehran Cardinal Dominique Mathieu OFM Cap, but on Thursday the order confirmed to katholisch.de on Thursday that it had secured contact with the cardinal.