Decrying the United States’ conflict with Iran as “an immoral war,” Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy during a Vigil Mass for Peace at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on April 11 urged people to pray for peace and advocate with their government leaders and representatives for an end to that war.
“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,” the cardinal said in his homily.
Cardinal McElroy celebrated the Mass on a day Pope Leo XIV invited the world’s Catholics to join him in a Vigil for Peace that the pontiff announced on Easter Sunday. The cardinal invited priests throughout the Archdiocese of Washington to celebrate Vigil Masses for Peace at their parishes on April 11, joining the worldwide prayers for peace.
On April 7, the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire. The United States and Israel began a massive bombing campaign against Iran six weeks ago on Feb. 28, killing many of its leaders, and in response, Iran launched missile and drone strikes against Israel and on neighboring Middle Eastern nations. Earlier this year, the Iranian regime reportedly slaughtered thousands of protesters.
Despite the ceasefire, Iran continued blocking the flow of oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, and Israel continued its offensive against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, launching a devastating bombing campaign in Beirut.
Before the ceasefire was reached on April 7, President Trump had set a deadline that evening for Iran to reopen the strait, warning that all the country’s power plants and bridges could be bombed, which some experts said could constitute war crimes because of the impact on civilian populations, and the president threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran didn’t comply. Pope Leo, Cardinal McElroy and other faith leaders decried that language and urged that the sides in the war step back from the escalating violence.
The Vigil Mass for Peace was also celebrated on a day when peace talks aimed at ending the war opened in Pakistan.
In his homily, Cardinal McElroy emphasized that, “Tonight we gather in prayer. We pray that the ceasefire holds and that it leads to a substantive foundation for the emergence of peace in the Middle East. We are aware of the barbaric nature of the Iranian regime and the enormous destruction U.S. and Israeli bombing has visited on Iran. And so we pray all the harder.”
The cardinal said that in their prayers, “We desperately ask our God, the Prince of Peace, to open the minds and hearts of all those in positions of power to look beyond their own interests and to see in its fullness the well-being of all those ensnared in this bitter and needless conflict.”
He encouraged people as they left church that evening, not only to pray, but also to advocate for peace with their representatives and leaders.
“It is not enough to say we have prayed. We must also act. For it is very possible that the negotiations will fail because of recalcitrance on one or both sides, and our president will move to reenter this immoral war,” the cardinal said.
Concluding his homily, Cardinal McElroy issued an impassioned plea for an end to the war against Iran, saying, “At that critical juncture, as disciples of Jesus Christ called to be peacemakers in the world, we must answer vocally and in unison: No. Not in our name. Not at this moment. Not with our country.”
The congregation in the cathedral responded with applause for several minutes.
Celebrating the Mass one week after he had presided at the Easter Vigil in the cathedral, Washington’s archbishop began his homily noting that the first words of the risen Christ to the Apostles were, “Peace be with you.”
Peace is the ultimate gift of the Resurrection, he said, adding that the peace of the Resurrection provides Jesus’s followers today with “the only essential compass that we need for our lives on this Earth… For as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called profoundly to be peacemakers in the world in which we live.”
Fostering that peace begins with the call “to be builders of peace within our own hearts and souls,” and to be “bridge builders and reconcilers in our family life,” the cardinal said. He added that in a time of polarization in the United States, its citizens are called to be peacemakers in the nation as it prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary.
“Finally, 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,” Cardinal McElroy said.
The cardinal emphasized that “it is this last responsibility which weighs most heavily upon us this night. For we are in the midst of an immoral war.”
Reflecting on the United States’ war with Iran and its moral implications, Cardinal McElroy said, “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 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.”
At his Vigil for Peace in Rome, Pope Leo repeated a plea made by Pope Saint John Paul II and other recent popes, saying, “No more war!”
Explaining the reason why he had encouraged the worldwide Vigils for Peace, the pope said, “We want to tell the whole world that it is possible to build peace, a new peace, that it is possible for all people, of all religions, of all ethnicities, to live together, and that we want to be disciples of Jesus Christ, united as brothers and sisters, all united in a world of peace.”
The concelebrants at the Vigil Mass for Peace at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle included Cardinal Wilton Gregory, an archbishop emeritus of Washington; and Washington Auxiliary Bishops Roy Campbell Jr., Juan Esposito and Evelio Menjivar.
Welcoming the congregation of hundreds of people to the cathedral, its rector, Msgr. W. Ronald Jameson, said, “This evening, we thank God as He brought us all together to pray for peace… Together with one voice, we can pray for peace.”
The intentions at the Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral included a prayer for “an end to sectarian violence and aggression throughout the world, especially in Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Ukraine and Sudan; and for all those suffering in Haiti, Myanmar, Gaza and the West Bank; for an increase in wisdom, courage and determination among those who devote themselves to promoting peace and tolerance and an end to poisonous fundamentalism.”
Another prayer was offered “for all those who have died as a result of war, gun violence, famine, terrorism and death by authoritarian governments. And for their families and friends who struggle with their loss.”
Then the cardinal asked for a moment of silence, so people there could pray for peace.
A combined choir with 84 students from Lee’s Summit West and Lee’s Summit North high schools near Kansas City, Missouri, sang at the Mass, including helping to lead the singing of the opening hymn, “O God of Love, O Prince of Peace.” The choir members, accompanied by a brass quartet, also sang a stirring Communion antiphon, Dona Nobis Pacem (Latin for “Grant us Peace.”)
The students were on a school trip to Washington for the nation’s 250th anniversary, and the marching bands from their schools performed in the Cherry Blossom Parade earlier that day.
As the Mass was ending, Cardinal McElroy thanked the student choir members “for raising our souls to heaven and reminding us what the world should be like.”
Before offering his final blessing at the Mass, the cardinal thanked the people at the cathedral for “being here on this night and praying for peace,” and he said, “Let us in these coming days redouble our prayers for peace so we might have an end to this conflict and a new beginning of understanding how we are called to live in this world, each and every one of us, and each and every nation on this Earth.”
St. Matthew’s Cathedral in its history has been a special place for Catholics in the Washington area to pray for peace, including after the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. When Germany and later Japan surrendered in 1945, ending World War II, the deadliest war in human history, crowds of people gathered at St. Matthew’s Cathedral to offer prayers of thanksgiving.
The congregation at the Vigil Mass for Peace at the cathedral included some people who had become Catholic at the Easter Vigil there one week earlier.
After the Mass, Nadia Zafari – a native of Iran who was baptized and received the sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist during that Easter Vigil – said she appreciated that the cardinal also mentioned the violence that the Iranian regime has inflicted on its people, which she said has included young people being executed by hanging.
“I really hope there’s some peace… I haven’t heard from my family in two weeks,” she said.
Zafari also said, “I don’t think bombs are the solution,” but she added, “I really do hope for regime change without any more blood being shed, because so far, it has cost too many lives.”
Charles Jackson, who received the sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil, also said he appreciated what the cardinal said about peace. “Peace begins in our hearts. It goes back to us, treating our neighbors like ourselves,” he said.
That point was echoed by Tiffany Chen, who also received those sacraments at the Easter Vigil there. She said the Bible, beginning with the Book of Genesis, reveals that “we are actually brothers and sisters.” Then, she said, you can regard every person you meet as family, and “war is incomprehensible. It’s unholy.”
Chen then said, “If we want to look at God’s true intent, he wants us to love each other.”
Link to text of Cardinal McElroy’s homily:
https://www.cathstan.org/voices/text-of-cardinal-mcelroys-homily-at-vigil-mass-for-peace
Link to story on Pope Leo XIV’s Vigil for Peace:
Link to story on Vigil for Peace at the National Shrine:
