Cardinal McElroy's Homily at the Vigil Mass for Peace on April 11, 2026

Yesterday the archbishop of Washington, Robert Cardinal McElroy, delivered the following homily at a Mass for Peace:

https://adw.org/news/massforpeacehomily-april-11-en/

An excerpt:

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

It is this last responsibility which weighs most heavily upon us this night. For we are in the midst of an immoral war. We entered this war not out of necessity but rather choice. We failed to ardently pursue the pathway of negotiation to its end before turning to war. 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. And we blinded ourselves to the cascade of global destructiveness that would likely flow from our attacks – the expansion of the war far beyond Iran, the disruption of the world economy, and the loss of life. 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.

Pope Leo 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. It is, as he points out, in the conversion of hearts and souls that the only true pathway to just and lasting peace can be found, a conversion which casts aside our weapons and begins with reconciliation first.

Please see the text linked above for the complete remarks.