After President Donald Trump’s blistering attack on Pope Leo XIV, CBS News gave airtime to Catholic cardinals who blasted the president for his “sickening” social media posts about Iran.
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, Washington, D.C. Cardinal Robert McElroy, and Newark, New Jersey, Cardinal Joseph Tobin appeared on “60 Minutes” Sunday, where they parrotted the pope’s calls for peace amid the conflict with Iran and called out Trump for giving an “entertainment” quality to posts about the war.
“To splice together movie cuts with actual bombing and targeting of people for the purposes of entertainment is sickening. This is not who we are,” says Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, criticizing what he calls the White House’s “gamification” of the war on social media.… pic.twitter.com/xfctkgbnop
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 12, 2026
“We’re dehumanizing the victims of war by turning the suffering of people and the killing of children and our own soldiers into entertainment,” Cupich told host Norah O’Donnell, complaining about the White House’s “gamification” of the conflict.
“It is sickening. To splice together movie cuts with actual bombing and targeting of people for the purposes of entertainment is sickening,” he said, referring to posts that combined military clips with scenes from movies and TV.
“This is not who we are. We’re better than this,” added the cardinal, who is based in Chicago, where Pope Leo was born.
Cardinal McElroy conceded that Iran is run by an “abominable regime” and that it “should be removed.”
“But this is a war of choice that we went to, and I think it’s embedded in a wider moment in the United States that’s worrying, which is this: We’re seeing before us the possibility of war after war after war,” he added.
Politics first for Cardinal McElroy: The defensive Iran war is not “just” because…Trump. https://t.co/y2JlXzUaRo
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) April 13, 2026
Trump blasted the pope as “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy” in a social media post following the first American-born pontiff’s criticism of the administration.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country,” he wrote on Truth Social.
.@POTUS: “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess… I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person — and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime.” https://t.co/Aim0xeALzu pic.twitter.com/oUSJsmJBwU
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 13, 2026
The pope set off a wave of criticism in a message declaring that “God does not bless any conflict.”
“Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples,” a social media post read.
Pope sets off firestorm after saying those who ‘drop bombs’ are not true Christians https://t.co/GmzZBFpw8h via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) April 11, 2026
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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