This episode is about the war in Iran and what Catholic Social Teaching has to say about the war, focusing on news and reactions from February 28 to April 8, 2026.

Here are references and notes:

1. Here's what the Trump administration has said motivated the strikes.
2. Persons killed and injured in Iran and US casualties through early April 2026
3. Persons displaced by the war in Iran
4. Estimated US expenditure on war through early April 2026
5. Cardinal Parolin: Preventive wars risk setting the world ablaze - March 4, 2026
6. Cardinal Pizzaballa: Using God's name to justify war is 'gravest sin'
7. Pope at Palm Sunday Mass: ‘Jesus does not listen to prayers of those who wage war’
8. Catechism of the Catholic Church – Safeguarding Peace and Avoiding War – see section 2309 for just war criteria
9. Cardinal McElroy says U.S. entry into war with Iran ‘not morally legitimate,’ citing Catholic just war teaching
10. Articles from Catholic commentators supporting the war:  A Cautious Case for the Iran War by Philip Primeau and Contra Pope Leo, Catholic Just War Doctrine Supports Iran Strikes by Shannon Walsh & Sean Patrick Calabria
11. The Just War Tradition and the Iran War: A Catholic Examination for American Conservatives by Will Wright - a Catholic conservative makes the case that the Iran war does not meet just war criteria
12. Pope Leo: The threat against the entire Iranian people is unacceptable April 7, 2026
13. Statement from Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the USCCB
14. Podcast website with full transcripts

Send me a text or voicemail