Cardinal Blase J. Cupich has joined a growing chorus of Catholic leaders in speaking out against President Donald Trump’s foreign policy moves.
Cupich, who has served as archbishop of Chicago since 2014, blasted the Trump administration’s insensitive messaging around the Iran war after the White House posted a video featuring clips of “Gladiator” and “The Matrix” and other movies spliced with actual Iran strike footage to social media last week.
“A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game — it’s sickening,” he wrote in a statement titled “A Call to Conscience” Saturday. “Hundreds of people are dead, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, including scores of children who made the fatal mistake of going to school that day. Six U.S. soldiers have been killed. They are also dishonored by that social media post.”
“This horrifying portrayal demonstrates that we now live in an era when the distance between the battlefield and the living room has been drastically reduced,” he continued.
The Trump administration has made a number of eyebrow-raising attempts on social media to get Americans excited about the war ever since the conflict, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, erupted Feb. 28.
