White House defends Trump comment to let Iran ‘take out’ LA and San Diego as reflected on by Father Raymond Connolly
Yesterday afternoon, I locked St. Jude’s heavy oak doors after the five o’clock confessions. The late freight train rumbled across our river bridge. Here in our valley, people understand what it means to build things. They also know the true cost of destruction. People understand the weight of steel. They feel the fragility of a paycheck. Furthermore, they offer constant prayers to keep roofs over their children’s heads. Therefore, when news filters in from Washington, it hits the spirit hard. National leaders trade careless words about cities like Los Angeles and San Diego. This is not political theater. Instead, it represents a chilling moral failure. We must always defend LA and San Diego, and all our communities.
Catholic moral teaching has never treated human communities as bargaining chips. It certainly does not view them as rhetorical fodder. A city is not an abstraction on a briefing paper. Nor is it merely a target on a military map. A city holds tens of thousands of homes. It contains parish halls, schools, clinics, and soup kitchens. Ultimately, it encompasses countless souls made in God’s image and likeness. These souls wake up for work. They nurse sick infants. They strive to live quietly in peace. Thus, speaking casually of letting an adversary annihilate whole American cities betrays a terrible hardening of the moral imagination. This holds true even under the guise of an exaggerated strategic warning.
Defending Our Cities: A Moral Imperative
When leadership stoops to discussing the destruction of millions, something essential in the civic soul withers. We have grown too accustomed to political posturing. Consequently, we risk losing our sense of horror. Yet, Scripture reminds us: life and death are in the power of the tongue. Words establish what is thinkable. What becomes thinkable soon becomes tolerable. When statesmen toy with apocalyptic devastation, they score rhetorical points against rivals. In doing so, they cheapen the sanctity of every human life they are sworn to protect. This undermines our collective duty to defend LA and San Diego, and all American lives.
Here in our rust-belt parish, the older men still recall Cold War drills. Children knelt under desks, fearing nuclear fire. That fear was born of a sober recognition. Atomic weapons represent a temptation toward total, indiscriminate madness. The Church has consistently taught this truth. From the Second Vatican Council to recent popes, the message remains clear. Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at destroying entire cities and their populations is a crime. It is a crime against God and humanity itself. The duty of statecraft is to prevent that abyss. Leaders should not banter about it on television.
True Fortitude and Mutual Care
Leaders inflict a deep wound on the common good when they divide our country. They label some territories expendable and others worth defending. St. Paul taught the Corinthians a vital lesson: if one member of the body suffers, all suffer together. If Los Angeles or San Diego were struck, grief and devastation would belong to everyone. It would impact every mill town in Pennsylvania and every farm in Ohio. We cannot cultivate solidarity when public discourse suggests certain communities are casually written off. This happens because of political disagreements. A nation is a covenant of mutual care. Otherwise, it is nothing at all.
True strength does not express itself in reckless bravado. It avoids apocalyptic casualness. In our Catholic tradition, fortitude is a virtue. It stands shoulder to shoulder with prudence and justice. Fortitude protects the weak. It guards the innocent. Moreover, it speaks with sober reverence when human survival hangs in the balance. It requires far more courage to speak with measured restraint and moral clarity. This is much harder than tossing around threats of global destruction like loose gravel.
Tonight at our parish vigil, we will light candles. We will place them before the statue of St. Jude, patron of difficult causes. We will pray for our leaders in Washington. May God grant them a clean heart and a spirit of wisdom. We will also pray for the families in San Diego, Los Angeles, and across this nation. We ask the Lord to shield our people. Protect them from the genuine terrors of modern war. Also, shield them from the poisonous vanity of those who speak of disaster as if it were a game.
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