Catholic Cardinal Slams Trump Admin’s ‘Sickening’ Social Media Posts About Iran War on 60 Minutes

Catholic Cardinal Blase Cupich lambasted President Donald Trump’s administration for posting “sickening” social media content about the Iran war during an interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday.

The long-running CBS show interviewed Cupich and two other high-ranking American Catholics — Cardinal Joseph Tubin and Cardinal Robert McElroy — days after Pope Leo XIV ramped up his criticism of the war.

Cupich told correspondent Norah O’Donnell he has been appalled by the White House’s “gamification” of the war on social media, where it combines military clips with movie and TV scenes; 60 Minutes highlighted a March X post that included Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick” and Mel Gibson from “Braveheart,” among other pop culture references. You can see that post below.

“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 said.

O’Donnell added he had called it “sickening” previously, and Cupich reiterated it for the CBS audience.

“It is sickening. To splice together movie cuts with actual bombing and targeting of people for the purposes of entertainment is sickening,” he said. “This is not who we are. We’re better than this.”

Cupich is based in Chicago, where Pope Leo — the first American-born pontiff — is from.

The 60 Minutes broadcast showed O’Donnell traveled to Rome in March to ask the pope what his “hopes are for the Middle East.”

“I am praying for peace,” the pope told her. “I hope that ceasefire would be the most effective way to work together to find peace for all parties, to respect all parties and to come to a solution, which is too many years, and you know, creating problems for everyone, so… work for peace.”

She then noted his tone has “sharpened” since then, pointing to Pope Leo’s criticism of President Trump threatening to wipe out a “whole civilization” in Iran if its theocratic leaders did not make a deal. The pope called it “truly unacceptable.” 

Cardinal McElroy told 60 Minutes Iran is run by an “abominable regime” that “should be removed.”

He then said, “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.”

Watch above via CBS; Cupich’s comments are made towards the end of the clip.

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