Bishop Barron slams 'absurd' Trump-Pope 'war' narrative

He then continued, saying that it is not the role of the Church to determine whether a war is just.

He continued by laying out a series of questions to be considered, including, "Is the war in question truly the last resort? Is there really a balance between the good to be attained and the destruction caused by the war? Are combatants and non-combatants being properly distinguished in the waging of the conflict? Do the belligerents have right intention? Is there a reasonable hope of success? The posing of those questions-indeed the insistence upon their moral relevance-belongs rightly to the Church, but the answering of them belongs to the civil authorities." 

Last week, Barron said that Trump owes Pope Leo an apology after Trump posted his scathing message about Leo in a Truth Social post. 

"The statements made by President Trump on Truth Social regarding the Pope were entirely inappropriate and disrespectful," Barron said in an X post. "They don't contribute at all to a constructive conversation. It is the Pope's prerogative to articulate Catholic doctrine and the principles that govern the moral life. In regard to the concrete application of those principles, people of good will can and do disagree."

"The Pope has said, on numerous occasions, that he is not a politician and that his role is not the determination of any nation's foreign policy," Barron said. "But he has just as clearly said that he will continue to speak for peace and for moral constraint. In making both of these claims, he is operating perfectly within the framework of paragraph 2309 of the Catechism. If we understand that the Pope and the President have qualitatively different roles to play in the determination of moral action in regard to war, we can, I hope, extricate ourselves from the completely unhelpful narrative of 'Pope vs. President.'"