Cardinal Robert McElroy on Saturday flatly called the U.S. war against Iran “immoral” and called on faithful citizens in the U.S. capital archdiocese “move beyond prayer” and “act” to end the bombing permanently.

“As citizens and believers of this democracy that we cherish so deeply,” McElroy said, “we must advocate for peace with our representatives and leaders.”

McElroy was preaching at a vigil Mass for peace on Saturday evening in the cathedral basilica of St. Matthew in Washington, D.C., hours after Pope Leo XIV led a prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and just as marathon negotiations between Iran and the United States were underway in Pakistan, which brokered a two-week ceasefire that went into effect in the middle of last week.

“It is very possible that the negotiations will fail because of recalcitrance on both sides,” McElroy said, “and the president will move to reenter this immoral war.”

For now, however, the two-week truce is holding despite the parties’ failure to reach a permanent settlement during 21 hours of talks.

McElroy invoked Pope Leo XIV, who, he said, “has made it totally clear that the only pathway which Catholic teaching allows at this moment is the permanent cessation of hostilities and vigorous steps to build up the conditions for a lasting peace.”

The cardinal went further than the pontiff, however, in directly and explicitly condemning the immorality of the U.S. action against Iran.

“[W]e are in the midst of an immoral war,” McElroy said. “We entered this war not out of necessity but rather choice,” and “failed to ardently pursue the pathway of negotiation to its end before turning to war.”

McElroy also criticized the Trump administration’s apparent lack of planning and communication of war aims.

“We had no clear intention, instead darting from unconditional surrender to regime change to the degradation of conventional weapons to the removal of nuclear materials,” the cardinal said, “and we blinded ourselves to the cascade of global destructiveness that would flow from our attacks.”

“The expansion of the war far beyond Iran, the disruption of the world economy, and the loss of life,” were among the evil effects McElroy mentioned.

“Each of these policy failures is equally a moral failure which under Catholic just war principles renders both the initiation of this war and any continuation of it morally illegitimate,” McElroy said.

Catholics remain polarized in the United States, but informed opinion across the political spectrum has ranged from concerned at the Trump administration’s lack of clarity and even contradictory statements regarding the Iran campaign’s strategic objectives to appalled at the bellicose and even bloodthirsty rhetoric of Trump and other officials in his administration.

“We are called to be peacemakers within this nation which we love so deeply,” McElroy said, “refusing to allow the cancer of polarization to swallow up the noblest dreams of our founders in this very year in which we celebrate our 250th birthday as a country.”

“We must be builders of peace among nations,” he said, “rejecting the pathway of war that lures us toward the ending of civilizations and the pursuit of domination rather than true peace.”

As for the future of talks between Iran and the U.S., negotiators on Sunday morning appeared to leave the door open.

The U.S. delegation to the talks in Islamabad was led by Vice President JD Vance – a Catholic described by Trump last month as “philosophically a little bit different” from his principal on the war – while the Iranian delegation was headed Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a former military officer who has been the Speaker of Iran’s parliament since 2020 and is considered a “moderate” voice in Iranian politics.

At a luncheon on April 1, Trump joked about the prospects of a peace deal.

“If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the room. “If it does happen,” Trump said, “I’m taking full credit.”

“I think they’re desperate,” Trump added in the April 1 remarks.

Follow Chris Altieri on X: @craltieri