“War is not a video game.” Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday, March 11, 2026. Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich issues a blunt statement trying to change the U.S. depiction of war against Iran as video entertainment. Vatican diplomat Archbishop Caccia replaces Cardinal Christophe Pierre as papal nuncio. Evangelical Bible teacher Beth Moore retires. “Pi Day” is coming March 14. Any day meditation might begin with discovering the “Hand of God” in a sunset.
Views, analysis and commentaries, including several uncomfortable opinions among our curated items are the property — and the responsibility — of their authors, editors and publishers. Inclusion of an item does not mean endorsement by the AUSCP.
U.S. – Israeli war against Iran
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago condemned what he called the “gamification” of war, imploring Americans to resist becoming desensitized to the “true costs of war” and to protect their humanity. From National Catholic Reporter. “A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game — it’s sickening,” he wrote.
The United States’ war with Iran is “not morally legitimate” because it fails several tenets of Catholic just war principles, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington said in a March 9 interview with his archdiocesan newspaper, reported by the National Catholic Reporter. The cardinal referenced Pope Benedict XVI, who rejected the concept of preventative war.
‘No alternative to dialogue’: Southern Arabia bishop on war and fear in the Gulf. From National Catholic Reporter.
Iran has named a son of its late supreme leader as his successor. U.S. President Donald Trump already had expressed disdain for Mojtaba Khamenei, calling him “unacceptable.” The Islamic Republic’s war strategy now has a new commander, and the powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has pledged allegiance. From Religion News Service.
Muslim leaders call closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan politically motivated. Worshippers’ access to Israel’s holy sites came to a sudden halt last week amid safety concerns as Iran retaliated to the joint US-Israeli attack. From Religion News Service.
The Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has issued a Statement Calling the Catholic Faithful to Prayer for Peace in the Middle East. The statement affirms that we cannot remain indifferent to an armed conflict that risks escalating into a prolonged war.
Some Catholic pilgrims visiting the Holy Land have been stranded in Israel and the West Bank after the rapid escalation of hostilities between the U.S., Israel and Iran triggered widespread airspace closures across the Middle East, grounding commercial flights and sharply restricting movement across borders. From National Catholic Reporter.
In what has become an annual ritual, evangelical leaders gathered around President Donald Trump in the Oval Office March 5 and prayed over him and for U.S. success in the war against Iran. From Baptist News Global.
“Palestinian Christians denounce US evangelical support for war on Iran,” according to a report from Independent Catholic News. Pastor Munther Isaac from Bethlehem said that every human life is precious and urged peace and an end to suffering in an on-line briefing about the US-Israeli war with Iran and across the Middle East on Friday March 6.
WARNING: OPINION that killing of children was deliberate. “This latest war on Iran . . . began with the bombing of a girl’s elementary school in southern Iran. 165 people were killed, most of them children between the ages of 7 and 12. . . . both the US and Israel refuse to take responsibility for the attack, which an Al Jazeera investigation has determined was likely deliberate as the school primarily serves the children of IRGC Navy officers.” From the Christian Century.
WARNING: OPINION of Hegseth, ‘A very dangerous person.’ Critics say brash, bombastic Fox News host out of his depth to guide US military through murky new Middle East conflict. Reported by the Guardian.
Gaza Christians
Headline from Independent Catholic News: “War Does Not Have the Last Word: A Chronicle of the Christian Community in Gaza.” A documentary produced by KTO Télévision Catholique titled ‘La guerre n’aura pas le dernier mot’ (War Doesn’t Have the Last Word) traces the life of Christian communities in Gaza Strip, Jenin, and Taybeh during the recent war on Gaza, presenting testimonies from those who remain as well as from members of the community who now reside outside Gaza.
The Catholic Church in the United States
Vatican diplomat Archbishop Geordano Caccia replaces Cardinal Christophe Pierre as papal nuncio. The career Vatican diplomat, Archbishop Caccia, is the new representative to the U.S. Caccia, the Holy See’s observer at the United Nations since 2019, replaces Cardinal Christophe Pierre as papal nuncio.
The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference said he offers prayerful support to the nuncio. From National Catholic Register.
The Beth Moore phenomenon
For decades, Beth Moore taught at stadiums and megachurches and sold millions of Bible studies and books, in a remarkable career that started when she began teaching a Bible study at a church in Houston. One of her studies, “A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place,” wound up in the hands of an editor at Lifeway, and made her a household name among evangelicals.
Deportation
What happens to deported persons? A new report from the American Friends Service Committee offers disturbing information. The new report documents harm to migrants after expulsion from the U.S. and Mexico.
“There simply isn’t enough capacity even for the local community,” said Karen Perez, the country director for Jesuit Refugee Service in Mexico. “Newly arrived deportees step off planes . . . still wearing gray detention uniforms issued in the United States. . . . they are released onto the street with little more than the clothes they are wearing. Some appear confused. Many do not know where they are.”
A proposed settlement of a Texas property scam lawsuit would divert $20 million from Hispanic victims of the scheme to immigration enforcement in the very community where consumers were swindled. From Baptist News Global.
American life
As American Catholics, we rightfully celebrated the feast of St. Katharine Drexel this month. “A saint walked along the streets of Nashville.” A writer at Black Catholic Messenger offers a further consideration: “Eugene Bunn, an African-American stove repairer in Nashville. His is a story of faith and agency during Jim Crow, when Black Catholics were denied agency not only by civil society but by their Church.”
“American Jewish Immigrants Invented Childhood” according to a story from Religion News Service. “Teddy bears. Lionel trains. Baseball cards. Curious George. Barbie. All were made by Jews,” says Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, in his column, Martini Judaism.
Gallup Poll on importance of religion
Fewer than half of Americans say religion is “very important” in their lives, according to a report from Religion News Service. “President Trump said he was ‘bringing back religion,’ but the latest Gallup Poll shows no evidence of that.”
Rapidly passed Kansas law targets trans residents
A new Kansas law requires the driver’s licenses of transgender people to match their sex at birth and restricts them to using public bathrooms corresponding to their assigned gender. From Baptist News Global.
Chaldean Catholic bishop arrested
Bishop Emanuel Shaleta of the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle in San Diego was “contacted and detained” March 5 at that city’s international airport while “attempting to leave the country,” according to a statement issued that same day by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. The report, from National Catholic Reporter.
UND – It’s complicated
Sociologist Christian Smith has publicly announced his retirement from the University of Notre Dame. His First Things essay, “Why I’m Done with Notre Dame,” highlights what he says are discrepancies between Notre Dame’s stated Catholic mission and its search for secular relevance. National Catholic Reporter invites conversation on the topic.
A ‘virtual God’
A Vatican theological commission warns of replacing God with ‘a world governed by machines’. The Vatican’s International Theological Commission has warned that if humanity places total trust in technology in a “world ruled by machines,” it risks replacing the “living God” with a counterfeit “virtual God.” From National Catholic Reporter.
OPINION Pope Leo is right: Preaching cannot be automated. In an opinion piece, a writer published by the National Catholic Reporter comments on AI. “The contemporary debate over artificial intelligence is often framed in technical, economic or regulatory terms. Yet for the church, the question is fundamentally anthropological, theological and pastoral.”
The digital culture
Catholic Way Forward discusses: How should the church navigate digital culture? Columnist Michael Sean Winters weighs in on the conversation, from National Catholic Reporter.
Papal travel to Algeria
“7 key things to know about the Catholic Church in Algeria ahead of the pope’s visit,” says EWTN News. The first country Pope Leo XIV will visit during his Africa trip in April will be Algeria, a country where Christianity has ancient roots but Catholics constitute a small minority.
‘Pi Day’
“Pi day” is coming March 14, 3.14, offering rituals as walking in a circle and eating pie to celebrate the un-ending proportion of circumference to radius. It’s not religious, but it is an experience of the infinite — an irrational number with infinite, non-repeating digits. As you climb the ladder of mathematics, pi appears more and more. It helps with finding surface area and volume for spheres and cylinders, and plays a large role in physics, statistics, and engineering.
Traveler sees ‘Hand of God’
Our search for wisdom this week led us to a secular article bearing witness to the faith-experience of nature. “You can see a sunset and believe you have witnessed the Hand of God. . . . In Africa, in the midday heat, you can see blisters in the atmosphere. When you are in Africa, you feel primordial, rocked in the cradle of the world.” The item is a commercial for Oversees Adventure Travel, but an enjoyable read.
Thea Bowman
A newly expanded musical on Servant of God Thea Bowman will premiere in St. Louis, according to Black Catholic Messenger. ValLimar Jansen is the writer and star of “I Will Live Until I Die”, which chronicles the storied African-American Catholic nun who died in 1990.
Justice Bulletin Board
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