Three US Cardinals: Foreign policy must respect human dignity, religious liberty

Vatican News / January 19, 2026 / 1

Ten days after Pope Leo XIV’s ‘State of the World’ address, American Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin release a joint statement renouncing war and calling for US foreign policy to be based on peace and respect for human dignity and religious liberty.

By Devin Watkins

Three US Cardinals released a rare joint statement on Monday regarding American foreign policy, picking up several themes from Pope Leo XIV’s Address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.

The statement was signed by Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington; and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark. (Read the original statement here)

“In 2026, the United States has entered into the most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America’s actions in the world since the end of the Cold War,” they wrote.

The Cardinals said recent events in Venezuela, Ukraine, and Greenland raise “basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace.”

They highlighted the sovereign right of nations to self-determination, saying this principle appears increasingly fragile in the current conflictual geopolitics.

Efforts for just and sustainable peace have been subjected to partisanship, polarization, and destructive policies, despite peace being crucial to humanity’s well-being, said the three Cardinals.

“Our country’s moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination,” they noted.

Given this situation, the Cardinals said Pope Leo’s “State of the World” address on January 9 offers a “truly moral foundation” for international relations and a pathway for American foreign policy.

In his speech to diplomats, the Pope lamented the weakness of multilateralism and the failure of diplomacy to seek dialogue and consensus among opposing sides.

“War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading,” said Pope Leo. “The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined. Peace is no longer sought as a gift and desirable good in itself… Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion.”

Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin recalled the Pope’s reference to Catholic teaching, which he said must protect the right to life since that rights serves as the “indispensable foundation for every other human right.”

With him, they called for wealthy nations to provide humanitarian aid in order to safeguard human dignity of those who suffer, and lamented the rise in violation of conscience and religious freedom in the name of ideological or religious purity.

The American Cardinals therefore called for a “genuinely moral foreign policy for our nation,” expressing their desire to build “a truly just and lasting peace,” which Jesus proclaimed in the Gospel.

“We renounce war as an instrument for narrow national interests and proclaim that military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy,” they said. “We seek a foreign policy that respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance.”

In conclusion, the three Cardinals said Pope Leo has offered the United States a prism through which to overcome the “polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests” that currently inhibit the country’s debate on its own moral foundation.

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