By Tom Dwyer

Being a “conscience to the powerful” is a challenge people of goodwill and good faith face this week in a special way.  It is also a prophetic tradition of all faiths that constantly endures.

On Friday, the War Powers Act requires that Congress either approve or reject the continued deployment of US military forces to prosecute the Iran war. That Act states that no later than 60 days after a military campaign has been launched by a president without Congressional authorization, it must cease if Congress does not approve its continued conduct and declare War!

Shorthand versions of the question are: do we choose restraint or aggression; do we seek to abolish entire civilizations or decide to value human life; do we bow at the feet of brute power or stand for the resolution of differences through respectful negotiation and mutual accommodations.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” Pope Leo XIV (and other faith leaders) have been saying repeatedly in pleas to our national conscience. To which the powerful have been replying dismissively with varying forms of: mind your own business, stay out of politics, you don’t understand foreign policy; you need to be more careful about theology; you must like nuclear weapons; and, of course, the supreme insult: “I’m no fan of Leo’s.”

History offers a compelling alternate narrative, one that can create peace and progress if we but choose.

In October 1962, our country and indeed the world faced a horrific scenario: the Cuban Missile Crisis. Into that abyss stepped a peacemaker – Pope John XXIII.

In response to the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, then President John F. Kennedy ordered a blockage of further Soviet missile shipments to Cuba and demanded that those already there be removed. Nonetheless, Premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered the Soviet navy to break the blockade and deliver more missiles immediately.

Many of us of a certain age recall those terrifying few days while we and the rest of the world waited, fearing the start of World War III. In retrospect, I recall absurd drills in school, like hiding under your desk as if that would help. But there was a primal urge for everyone to do something, anything, as we all felt helpless to stop what seemed all but inevitable.

That the world did not erupt into nuclear war was due in no small measure to the intervention of John XXIII—the very model of a diplomatic Supreme Pontiff that President Trump and Vice President Vance are now trashing as they attempt to sideline Pope Leo XIV.

In a powerful Vatican Radio address that month, Pope John XXIII urged the leaders to not remain “deaf to the cry of humanity.”  Most remarkably and totally unexpectedly, the Pope’s message was printed on the front page of Pravda, the official state newspaper of the Soviet Union. Analysts believed this provided cover for Premier Khrushchev to portray his decision to turn back the Soviet naval vessels steaming to Cuba as a noble act of peacemaking. The Pope also sent a private letter to Khrushchev telling him such a decision would be an act of bravery, showing his love for humankind. He communicated similarly with President Kennedy.

This incident led directly to the Pope’s April 1963 ground-breaking encyclical, Pacem In Terris, or Peace on Earth.

Nearly 30 years later, in 1989, another peacemaker – this time Pope John Paul II – was pivotal in bringing about end of the Cold War, the most visible sign being the fall of the Berlin Wall beginning in November of that year. When the Berlin Wall fell Germany was re-united and optimism and hope sprouted for vastly improved East-West relations and prospects for peaceful co-existence.

Initially, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev viewed Pope John Paul II as a dangerous troublemaker to the Communist system because of his Polish background. Gorbachev was wary of what seemed to be an alliance between Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan to end communism and destroy the foundation of the Soviet Union. Over time, however, his views evolved.  President Gorbachev began pursuing a policy of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). The Pope and even President Reagan came to be seen as partners, not the Soviet Union’s enemies, let alone his personal ones.

In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and ongoing dialogue with the Pope, Gorbachev had a law passed that guaranteed religious freedom in the Soviet Union and legalized the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Diplomatic ties were established between the Vatican and the Soviet Union. Gorbachev forthrightly acknowledged the critical role of the Pope in ending the decades-old Cold War and years later called the Pope the “No. 1 humanist on the planet.”[i]

Politics, that which the Pope is being told unequivocally to stay out by our two top elected officials, is nothing but the dogged pursuit of the common good in a secular society. For the common good to be good and common, it must be infused with morality and achieved through consensus and compromise, not by raw power as one of Trump’s top policy advisors baldly stated in a recent TV interview.[ii]

That is one key reason why Popes and other faith leaders are invited to address political gatherings – Congress, parliaments, and other such bodies. For the laws they pass to be followed, politicians themselves recognize that they must first be considered just. For the imprimatur of justice, they look to religious and faith leaders to bestow that.

Being a conscience to the powerful is the everlasting responsibility of the faithful and the humane. This duty is rooted in the ancient prophetic voices of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, whose shared call for justice remains the very tradition that current political leaders are now trashing and attempting to sideline. Those prophets were pointing out the evils of the day and speaking, almost without exception, to those in power – kings, commanders, judges, the clergy – the civil and moral leaders of the day. Prophets were often reluctant to undertake their tasks, fearing not only their own safety but also the prospect of ridicule, intimidation, and scorn. But they spoke out nonetheless because they could not turn away.

Also speaking out now is a group of bereaved parents of the 168 children killed in the US missile strike on their Iranian school on the first day of the War. In a letter to the Pope Leo XIV, probably not unlike the tone and spirit of the private letter Pope John XXIII sent to Premier Khrushchev and President Kennedy on the eve of a potential nuclear holocaust, the parents write in part:

“Your Holiness, in the dark days when the terrifying sound of explosions had closed the ears of the world to our wails, the echo of your peace-seeking words became a balm for our endless wounds. When you courageously asked the world powers to ‘reduce the level of violence and bombings,’ we saw in every single one of your words the effort to save our children; those same defenseless humans whose lives you tried to protect by emphasizing the ‘necessity of protecting civilians and respecting international and humanitarian laws.’ You, with an aching heart and a divine perspective, warned the awakened consciences of the world that ‘hate is increasing, violence is worsening, and many have lost their lives.’ Today, the empty chairs of the classrooms in Minab are bitter testaments to this very truth; a truth brought about by the making of American bombs directed by illogical warmongers. We thank you that amidst the tumult of war, you became the voice of righteousness and reminded everyone that lasting peace and tranquility are achieved ‘not through force and weapons, but through the path of dialogue and the genuine search for a solution for all.’ Our children will never return home again to build a better tomorrow, but the prayer of us bereaved fathers and mothers is that your message to ‘lay down weapons’ is heard.”

This week is not a moment for quiet assent but for moral courage. To be a conscience to the powerful is not symbolic. It is a human obligation with real consequences for lives already shattered and lives still at risk. It means allowing our hearts to be moved, then raising our voices even when it is uncomfortable. It means insisting that our leaders look into the eyes of the wounded and bereaved, not just at maps and targets, and refusing the lie that violence is inevitable or beyond our reach to restrain.

Let us not look back on this moment wishing we had done more. Let us act—firmly, publicly, and without delay—so that Congress ends this war and chooses a path worthy of our shared humanity and our conscience.

[i] Research about the role of the popes in the Cuban Missile Crisis and in beginning the end of the Cold War as signaled by the fall of the Berlin Wall was conducted with the assistance of artificial intelligence using a variety of sources to confirm events.

[ii] In January 2026, Stephen Miller, a top adviser to President Trump, told CNN interviewer Jake Tapper:  “We live in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.  These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”  [It has been observed that the revolution and revelation introduced by Jesus – the new law – was to upset that old dynamic.]

Tom Dwyer is the President and Executive Director of A Faith That Does Justice. He writes and speaks frequently about the imperatives of faith-filled social justice in building the common good and guiding our responses to political questions.