The statement said Catholic tradition holds that nations 'can only legitimately take up the sword' in self-defense after peace efforts have failed.

The exclusion of the church from any substantive role in evaluating the moral legitimacy of decisions to go to war is a pathway to amoral decisions on war, not moral ones.

Pope Leo XIV said the Catholic Church “for years has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there.”

Not Vice-President J.D. Vance, who may be the most prominent Catholic convert in the United States, but Marco Rubio, the secretary of State. Some perceive this as a snub to Vance, though Rubio’s presence on the mission has another logic: He is the nation’s top diplomat,