(RNS) — In the hours before President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war with Iran, religious leaders across faith traditions responded with alarm after the president’s message Tuesday morning (April 7) warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
In response, X and other social media platforms were flooded with reactions from lawmakers, clergy and faith leaders.
The deadline, originally set for 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, was being described by the Trump administration as a last chance for Iran to agree to U.S. demands tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for the world’s oil and gas. If Iran did not comply, Trump warned the U.S. could carry out military strikes on major infrastructure targets.
Pope Leo XIV, who has made speaking up for peace a cornerstone of his early, sometimes soft-spoken papacy, called Trump’s threat targeting “all the people” of Iran “truly unacceptable,” as he was leaving Castel Gandolfo, his country house in Italy.
“I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved,” Leo said, “to contact the authorities — political leaders, congressmen — to ask them, to tell them, to work for peace and to reject war and violence.”
Advocacy groups and religious leaders in the U.S. were also quick to denounce Trump’s comments, criticizing his threats to attack civilian infrastructure.
Several U.S. Catholic bishops echoed Leo’s comments on social media. The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, also used unusually strong rhetoric in responding. Co …