Catholic Priest Explains Thoughts on Iran War

 

Dialogue, Not Bombs

What do I think about the Iran war?

As a priest, I would have to say, and I do believe exactly what the Holy Father says, that we've got to resolve our conflicts by talking to each other. That is always absolutely necessary. You just have to talk to each other.

The Catholic Church would stress that at every single possible level, because you want to avoid people being injured or killed who are completely innocent. The Church will always believe that if you have two parties who are both of goodwill, then you would be able to get to the table, sit down, and work out your fears, your disagreements, or what you consider to be a threat. The Church will always promote that way of resolving conflict.

So I agree with it. I agree with the Catholic Church. I agree with what the Holy Father says. And I don't say this just because I'm a Catholic priest. I think that is the ideal way of resolving conflict.

Military Pressure, Economic Pressure, and the Lessons of North Korea

So what do I think about the war in Iran? First of all, I'm not a historian and I am not a military expert. What is my opinion worth? About two percent. Take it with a grain of salt.

But based on everything that I've read, heard, and seen, I would say that there is this reluctance to use every possible military means of resolving or ending this conflict. I just read an article where they've cleared all the mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The Navy is there, the Marines are there, and yet the United States government is now attempting to use economic pressure to bring Iran to the negotiating table. Instead of military pressure, it's economic pressure.

And I guess anything would be better than bombs and missiles and drones and bullets flying. There's a risk to everything. Even an economic risk. As that video of that individual said, we could fall into a recession and gas prices could skyrocket.

My dad was a historian. He was a professor at RIT and taught history for many years. One thing I value most from growing up is that I had a library in my house, and it was extremely well-stocked with books. I've always loved history.

I have this book on Ulysses S. Grant here, and I love it because it gives you a perspective on how, during the Civil War, people sometimes think the North was extremely united against the South and the South was extremely united against the North. But in the North, there were riots when the Emancipation Proclamation was given. Riots in the Union states. People were rioting in the streets over the drafting of young men into the army. The North, and I believe the South as well, were not completely united on the cause.

So what we have to remind ourselves is this: if the nation is going to suffer, is it worth it? Gas prices going up, an economic recession. Is that pain worth what we're trying to achieve?

And what we appear to be trying to achieve is keeping Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It appears as though they enrich uranium beyond the need for civilian use. It appears as though they've built thousands and thousands of drones beyond the need to defend their country, and thousands and thousands of missiles beyond the need to defend their country.

There was something that Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, said that I thought was very interesting. He said it appeared as though Iran was trying to follow the same model as North Korea, building such overwhelming conventional forces that you deter anyone from stopping your nuclear weapons program. That is how North Korea developed nuclear weapons. They had a massive army, a massive arsenal of tanks and weapons, and now intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nobody can do anything about them anymore. They have nuclear weapons, and they're going to be able to build as many as they want.

So it appears as though the United States has learned a lesson from North Korea. If you allow Iran to develop this tremendous conventional force of drones and missiles, it will become extremely difficult to stop them. The United States, which is a superpower, has not been able to end the nuclear program through weapons alone, by destroying their infrastructure or the factories that build these things. Iran has clearly developed a tremendous arsenal, possibly to give themselves the cover they need to develop nuclear weapons.

Has the Conflict Gone on Too Long?

Do I think that the war has gone on too long? Again, this book offers some great parallels.

When Abraham Lincoln was running for his second term, the Union had not had a tremendous outright victory in any battle. Gettysburg was probably the first battle where they had something like a victory, along with the siege at Vicksburg. People were getting tired of the war. It had already gone on for four years.

So you have to ask yourself, is there a time limit that makes a war not worth it? Or is it the cause that makes a war worth it?

When Lincoln was running for his second term, people were exhausted from the war. The number of deaths was staggering. We're talking thousands, not 20 soldiers like in today's conflict. One soldier's death is horrible, of course. But we're talking about a conflict in Iran that has lasted six months with perhaps 25 or 30 soldiers killed and hundreds wounded. In the same period during the Civil War, thousands died in a single battle. There were roughly 15,000 Union deaths at Gettysburg alone.

Lincoln was not expected to win a second term. The man running against him was a general he had fired, McClellan, who ran as a Democrat. Lincoln was the first Republican president, which is remarkable in itself, that such a young party could win the presidency.

McClellan ran against Lincoln promising peace. Peace was his talking point. He said the conflict had gone on too long and that we needed a negotiated settlement. Imagine what the country would look like today if that had happened. Would there even be a United States of America?

People were willing to negotiate the Emancipation Proclamation. People were willing to negotiate slavery. People were willing to negotiate secession. But others, like Lincoln and Grant, determined that some things are simply too important to negotiate. The only acceptable outcome was winning and getting what was right.

It was a just cause. It was a righteous cause.

So has the conflict with Iran gone on too long? That depends on whether or not it is a just cause and a righteous cause, and whether we are sparing our children the pain of having to deal with this same issue 20 years from now.

A Problem That Doesn't Go Away by Wishing

I remember as a high school student when Iran took American embassy workers hostage. That was around 1979. I remember Carter and how he had to deal with it. I remember Ronald Reagan and how he said we should deal with it. But the fact is that Iran held Americans hostage for over a year, and the problem didn't go away just by wishing it would.

Here we are in 2026, still dealing with Iran.

I believe that either we have to reach a result that will spare our children and grandchildren this agony, or we have to accept that we weren't able to deal with it, or simply hoped it would go away on its own.

In order to have peace, you need two sides of goodwill. And I don't know if we have that. If one side is constantly chanting death to America, I don't know how that can be goodwill. I don't see it.

Of course, that is the Iranian government, not the Iranian people. I know many Iranians, and they are just amazing, beautiful people. I think many Iranian people would hope for a change in their country. But I can't speak for them. I simply know that when a government or its supporters are constantly saying death to America, it is going to be a challenge, definitely a challenge.

The Current State of the Conflict

Should we be concerned about the war's results? Right now there are no clear results, except that no one is shooting at each other and oil appears to be passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has shifted tactics and is now applying tremendous economic pressure on Iran. But the results we're looking for have not yet been attained.

How Can We Help Christians in the Middle East?

To help Christians in the Middle East, we have to pray for them. We have to support them economically. We have to encourage tourism, because that is a big and very important economic avenue for Christians living there. When Christians go to the Holy Land, they are able to support Christian stores and businesses.

If Christians in America and around the world don't support them, I don't know who would. There is just tremendous pressure coming from all angles on Christians living in the Middle East.

At our parish, we have a company that operates in the Holy Land and comes twice a year to sell beautifully crafted olive wood sculptures, statues, rosaries, and crucifixes. They are very grateful, very appreciative, and very humbled by the support. We are glad to have them.

Why Do Men Fight Who Were Born to Be Brothers?

War is not something the Catholic Church opposes in every circumstance. We are not pacifists. We believe there can be a just cause to go to war, and there are certain conditions that must be met for a war to be considered just.

But the evil of war is something General James Longstreet put into words that have stayed with me. Longstreet was a Confederate general who was also the best man at Ulysses S. Grant's wedding. He was present at Appomattox when Lee surrendered all Confederate forces to Grant, ending the Civil War. He later had something of a conversion, became a member of the Republican Party, and supported Grant in his presidential campaign, to the derision of former Confederate soldiers.

Longstreet asked this: “Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?”

That is the tragedy and the evil of war. If we see something as more important than the fact that we are brothers and sisters, we will always go to war. If we see money as more important, we will go to war. If we see land as more important, we will go to war. If we see oil as more important, we will go to war.

The evil of war, at its root, is the failure to recognize as the supreme good that we are all brothers and sisters.