Overview
- Pope Leo XIV released his March prayer intention calling for disarmament and peace, urging nations to renounce weapons and choose dialogue and diplomacy, and warning against the nuclear threat.
- Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran reflect a weakening of international law, cautioning that recognizing a right to preventive war could set the world ablaze.
- The U.S.-Israeli campaign entered its sixth day with fighting spreading to Lebanon and Gulf states, more than 1,000 people reported dead in Iran, at least 11 killed in Israel, six U.S. service members killed, and commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz severely disrupted.
- U.S. Cardinal Blase Cupich questioned the legitimacy of the military approach, saying the United States is heading down a road that will be very hard to come back from.
- The pope’s calls for dialogue drew partisan pushback on social media, with pro-Trump accounts accusing him of meddling and telling him to stay in his lane.