Leadership Statement of Solidarity with Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin
The Congregation Leadership Team of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace stands in full solidarity with Cardinals Blase Cupich, Robert McElroy, and Joseph Tobin for their moral witness and statement addressing recent foreign policy and military interventions made by the US Government. We share the cardinals’ grave concern about the abandonment of international law, multilateralism, and sustainable development.
The cardinals warn that "the building of just and sustainable peace, so crucial to humanity's well-being now and in the future, is being reduced to partisan categories that encourage polarization and destructive policies." Echoing Pope Leo XIV’s guidance that “the protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation for every other human right,” the cardinals reject “war being used as an instrument for narrow national interests.”
In the words of our 2008 Chapter Commitment, Seed of Peace-Growing in Nonviolence: “We live in a society marked strongly by the violence of war, violence to people through poverty and a sense of powerlessness and alienation, violence to earth, sea, and sky – violence that is truly cosmic. In response, we commit ourselves to grow more deeply toward a nonviolent way of being and acting as peacemakers.” This call to become peacemakers (Matt. 5:9) cannot be ignored, and the commitment to nonviolence must hold firm.
At our most recent Congregation Chapter in 2022, we committed to resist every form of war and violence. We agree with the cardinals’ renouncing “war as an instrument for narrow national interests.” The US boat strikes and the arrest of the Venezuelan president and his wife, the increasing pressure on Ukraine to cede land, and the threats to violently invade Greenland, along with the major reduction in foreign aid, cause further alarm that the US is turning away from a moral obligation to preserve a just peace around the world.
We urge all people of goodwill, especially American Catholics, to heed the guidance of Pope Leo XIV. In his reflection after praying the Angelus on January 18, the Pope said, “Our responsibility for unity must be accompanied by a steadfast commitment to peace and justice in the world.” American Catholics should feel encouraged by Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin to advocate for peace and justice, both in their communities and globally. As Christians, we are invited to advocate for complete respect of each person’s human dignity through what the three cardinals describe as, “a foreign policy that respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance.”
In the words of our 2022 Chapter Act, To Be Who We Say We Are: “It is time to be who we have always said we are. It is time to live our words. We embrace these promptings of the Spirit with courage, humility and trust.” Please join us in prayer and action as we continue to advocate on behalf of the most vulnerable around the world.
Congregation Leadership Team
January 21, 2026