Second Rebuke in Two Months: Conservative Archbishop Rebukes Trump’s ‘Lawless’ Cartel Strikes

Conservative Archbishop Timothy Broglio — the U.S. military’s Catholic prelate — has condemned Trump’s extralegal strikes on drug cartels. It’s his second public challenge of Trump in two months.

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The Archbishop for the Military Services, Timothy P. Broglio, issued a blistering statement this week urging U.S. leaders to “refrain from killing noncombatants” even as they neutralize violent cartels.

Broglio’s message came in response to the Trump administration’s newly revealed practice of violence outside the law — indiscriminate military strikes against alleged drug smugglers far from any battlefield.

The White House has touted these extraterritorial attacks as a get-tough narcotics policy, deploying warships and even naming the effort Operation Southern Spear.

But an incident on Sept. 2 raised grave moral questions: after U.S. missiles obliterated a boat suspected of carrying drugs, a second strike was ordered to “leave no survivors,” killing two injured smugglers in the water.

Reports indicate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal command to “kill everybody” on board. Even Republican lawmakers have been alarmed — one GOP senator called it a “horrible decision” that demands accountability.

Confronting these revelations, Archbishop Broglio declared that “the end never justifies the means” in the fight against drugs. Methods to combat cartels must remain ethical and lawful, he insisted.

Citing Catholic just war doctrine, Broglio reminded commanders that “no one can ever be ordered to commit an immoral act, and even those suspected of a crime are entitled to due process under the law”.

The intentional killing of those who pose no immediate threat is inviolably forbidden, he said — and any order to deliberately execute shipwrecked survivors would be “illegal and immoral”.

Military forces have lawful means to stop smugglers (interdiction, arrest, prosecution), Broglio noted, and “true justice is achieved through transparent legal procedures, accountability, and respect for life — not through violence outside the law”.

In a striking flourish, the archbishop invoked American ideals: Our nation, he said, has a proud tradition of “liberating the oppressed and leading the free world”, and must not tarnish that reputation with actions that flout human dignity and the rule of law.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio (center, in vestments) celebrates Mass for U.S. military personnel during a visit to the Middle East. As head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, Broglio serves as pastor to Catholics in uniform. Known as a staunch conservative, he has nonetheless begun to challenge President Trump’s policies on moral grounds.

Broglio’s forceful rebuke is extraordinary on its own, but even more so given his track record. Until recently, the 73-year-old prelate — who just finished a term as President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — was reticent to criticize the Trump administration.

In fact, at the bishops’ meeting last month, Broglio downplayed concerns about the military’s role in Trump’s mass deportation raids, suggesting it wasn’t inherently immoral (though he cautioned against using troops for domestic policing).

By reputation, Broglio is a churchman of the right: a protege of papal diplomat Cardinal Angelo Sodano, an outspoken opponent of abortion, and a champion of traditional teaching.

He was elected to lead the U.S. bishops in 2022 largely with support from the conference’s conservative wing. In short, he is the last person anyone expected to see taking on a Republican White House.

Yet here we are. This week’s statement marks the second time in two months that Archbishop Broglio has publicly challenged the Trump administration.

In October, he blasted the U.S. Army’s sudden cancellation of all Catholic pastoral contracts on bases — a cost-cutting move that left chapel services without musicians or faith coordinators.

Broglio warned that the policy “disproportionately harms Catholics,” overburdening the few priests in uniform and impeding troops’ First Amendment right to practice their faith. “In canceling these contracts, the Army ... impedes the constitutional guarantee of the free exercise of religion, especially for Catholics,” he wrote pointedly.

The Pentagon quickly backtracked on that decision, a quiet victory for Broglio. Now, just weeks later, he is confronting an even more sensitive issue: the use of lethal force at President Trump’s direction.

What explains this newfound boldness? By all accounts, one major factor is the inspiration of Pope Leo XIV. Pope Leo, who was elected in May, has made no secret of his dismay at Trump-era policies that violate human dignity.

Just on Tuesday, Leo told reporters he would urge U.S. leaders to seek dialogue and economic pressure — not invasion — in addressing Venezuela’s crisis.

The pope’s moral clarity seems to be emboldening bishops across the spectrum.

In mid-November, nearly all U.S. bishops united to issue a historic statement condemning Trump’s “inhumane” immigration raids.

Longtime observers called it perhaps the strongest collective denunciation of a U.S. president by the Catholic hierarchy in American history.

Such open defiance would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

During Mr. Trump’s first term, many bishops stayed silent or spoke only in generalities. Now, with Leo XIV in Rome and a second Trump administration in Washington, the dynamics have shifted.

I told The Washington Post back in July that Pope Leo’s leadership would prompt U.S. bishops to stand up to Trump in ways they hadn’t before. That prediction is proving true.

The courage of Archbishop Broglio — a man who once might have been counted among Trump’s loyal ecclesial supporters — underscores how dramatically the moral landscape has changed.

When even a hawkish military ordinariate is echoing Pope Leo’s calls for justice, it signals that American Catholicism will not give the president a free pass. Broglio himself put it best: “These principles have nothing to do with partisan politics, right, left, or center.”

In other words, basic respect for life and law is not up for negotiation. The Gospel compels the Church to speak truth to power, no matter who is in charge. And as Pope Leo XIV continues to remind us, fidelity to that mission must come before any loyalty to party or president.