Below is an e-mail that we wrote intended for Archbishop Lori. After six weeks of witnessing in front of The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, where Archbishop Lori also serves as pastor, we received a response from Archbishop Lori. The response is attached here. Ross, Fontanesi.Jeffrey, Suzanne.One Body Catholic Worker.Gaza & the Church’s response.08.27.25
We have received much encouragement from parishioners coming and going to Mass. I think they would be disappointed in the response. I am. The response disregards our application of Catholic moral teaching. Rather than engaging with our arguments and pleas, the response pretends that we are all on the same page of Catholic moral teaching. We are not. Archbishop Lori refuses to acknowledge what is all too plain to see – crimes against God and humanity committed by Israel with the full backing, military and political, of the United States.
I am not sure what Archbishop Lori thinks he is achieving by calling for charity towards the victims of war crimes without naming the perpetrators of those crimes. Yes, Hamas is guilty of war crimes. I cannot imagine the pain that the hostages and their families have had to endure. But Israel is committing war crimes on a massive scale, with the sine qua non support of the U.S.
On what grounds has Archbishop Lori concluded that it is not possible to save lives by calling on U.S. Catholics to call on their representatives to suspend certain weapons transfers to Israel. And, in accordance with what kind of ecclesiology has he concluded that refraining from calling out sin, specifically, the sin of U.S. complicity in war crimes, including genocide (our children will not be debating this), is a fitting thing for a bishop to do.
The U.S. Catholic Church is part of the glue holding together a system that values profit and war-backed security over the dignity of the human person. Baptized into Christ, we are all tasked with leading the Catholic Church, and we must lead it by shaking it out of this state of bizarre reticence regarding the war in Gaza.
Dear Fr. Kenneth:
I am following up on our conversation earlier today in front of The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. In addition to informing me that we are not permitted back on church property to continue our witness against the war in Gaza and to express our dissatisfaction with Archbishop Lori’s response to same, you invited me to send you an email outlining our concerns. In offering this response to your invitation, we ask for the prayers of Saint Oscar Romero, who, eight days before his assassination, lamented, “How many today are ashamed to testify for the innocent!”
Personal Background
Let me begin with some background. I have a PhD in Moral Theology from The Catholic University of America. I am also a practicing attorney. My wife, Suzanne Fontanesi (a nurse practitioner and a member of Doctors Against Genocide), and I are raising our children in a West Baltimore neighborhood. Along with others in our community, we are trying to bear some kind of witness to the classism and racism that dogs our social life and to ameliorate in whatever small ways we can some of their evil effects. In April of this year, I traveled to the West Bank. I was fortunate to spend time in Nablus speaking to Palestinian Catholics about life under Israeli occupation.
With respect to Gaza, we wrote to Archbishop Lori over a year ago pleading with him to speak out against the war in Gaza. We did not receive a response. Twice, in person, I have pleaded with Archbishop Lori to stand up for the innocent Palestinians being slaughtered and starved. On the second occasion, I presented to Archbishop Lori’s assistant a two-page document containing excerpts from Catholic moral teaching (in particular, from the Catholic Social Teaching component) and their applicability to Gaza. We did not receive a response.
Last weekend, Suzanne and I stood outside the church with signs and handouts. One sign read, “Palestine is a Pro-Life Issue.” In compliance with the protocol as explained to us, we did not approach parishioners. One parishioner accused us of being Hamas supporters; we are not. Almost every other discussion we had with parishioners was positive and even uplifting. That was the case again this weekend. They share our grief, our clarity about the immoral state into which the war in Gaza has degenerated, and the frustration over Archbishop Lori’s failure to name the inescapable reality that Israel’s war in Gaza, with the essential military and political assistance of the United States, violates Catholic moral teaching. As one person put it, the war in Gaza, Israel’s U.S.-backed war in Gaza, is a “sin.”
By failing to name this sin, Archbishop Lori has contributed, albeit unwittingly, to a toxic political and cultural environment in which expressions of support for the innocent Palestinians being slaughtered and starved are labeled anti-Semitic, with the inevitable effect of suppressing those expressions and dulling the hearts that once held them. And let us not be deceived – suppression of dissent against United States policy in Gaza reinforces suppression of dissent against current immigration policy. Silence with respect to Gaza has a treacherous compounding effect.
International Law and Catholic Moral Teaching
The damage from the war in Gaza will continue for decades and not just in the bodies and psyches of its direct victims. International legal institutions are being disabled and demonized by Israel and the United States. The current administration’s sanctioning of personnel of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestine Territories, Francesca Albanese, to cite two examples of the joint-assault, is shameful. It is also anti-Catholic.
I could cite many instances of Papal expressions of firm support for international law and its implementing institutions. The following two quotes should suffice to put all U.S. Catholics on notice that Israel’s and the United States’ current assault on international law offends Catholic moral teaching:
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“It is troubling to see that the force of international law and humanitarian law seems no longer to be binding, replaced by the alleged right to coerce others. This is unworthy of our humanity, shameful for all mankind and for the leaders of nations. After centuries of history, how can anyone believe that acts of war bring about peace and not backfire on those who commit them?” (Address of Pope Leo XIV to Participants in the Plenary Session of the “Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches” (ROACA) (6-26-25).
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“In this task of teaching peace, there is a particularly urgent need to lead individuals and peoples to respect the international order and to respect the commitments assumed by the Authorities which legitimately represent them. Peace and international law are closely linked to each another: law favours peace.” (Message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace) (emphasis in original).
The Permanent Validity of the Church’s Moral Teaching on Armed Conflict
One often hears, in response to pleas for the lives of Palestinians in Gaza, that Hamas is an evil that must be eradicated at all costs. I am pleased that the ICC has issued arrest warrants for certain Hamas leaders for their role in the October 7 attack on Israel; I am also pleased that the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence of Israel Yoav Gallant.
The point to be stressed here is that the evil committed by Hamas does not and cannot justify Israel’s ongoing violations of the laws of war and certainly not its ongoing violations of the Church’s moral teaching on armed conflict: “The Church and human reason both assert the permanent validity of moral law during armed conflict.” (Catechism of the Church [CCC] at 2312). In short, the evil committed by Hamas is no justification for the failure, in this moment, to tell the Catholic faithful what Catholic moral teaching has to say about Gaza.
Indiscriminate Destruction of Whole Cities or Vast Areas
“‘Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation.’” (CCC 2314 (quoting Gaudium et spes 80 § 3)). Is there any factual dispute that what has happened in Gaza rises to the level of the destruction of a vast area with its inhabitants?
Here are some facts: 92% of housing units have been destroyed or damaged; 90% of Gazans have been displaced at least once; 89% of water and sanitation units have been destroyed or damaged; 72% of the fishing fleet has been destroyed; only 50% of hospitals are partially functioning; less than 5% of cropland remains available for cultivation; over 2,308 educational facilities (from kindergartens to universities) have been destroyed. (Gaza Fact Sheet, Doctors Against Genocide). In 2024, the United States sent Israel 14,000 2,000 pound unguided bombs. In 2025, the United States sent Israel 35,000 2,000 pound unguided bombs. These bombs have a kill radius of 360 meters and a serious-injury/building damage radius of 800 meters. (FXB Center for Health & Human Rights at Harvard University, “Press Release: New study shows Israel air-dropped 2000lb bombs within lethal and damage ranges of hospitals in Gaza”). By one conservative estimate, in 2024, Israel had already dropped 20,000 tons of bombs on Gaza in its recent war. That is comparable to the carpet-bombing of Dresden. (Scientists for Global Responsibility, “Gaza: one of the most intense bombardments in history?”). The above point from Church teaching regarding “indiscriminate destruction” squarely applies to Gaza.
Even if a case could be made that there has been some lesser level of destruction than that condemned by the Church as a “crime against God and man,” it certainly must be very close to that level, and I cannot conceive an argument from within Catholic moral teaching that any such not-quite-as-bad level of destruction is morally acceptable. It is not. Archbishop Lori must condemn as a violation of Catholic moral teaching the level of destruction wrought by Israel, with U.S. made and paid-for weapons, on Gaza.
Starvation as a Weapon of War
“Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions.” (CCC 2313). The prohibition against the starvation of civilians is codified in international humanitarian law: “Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited” (Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, Article 54); “Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions” is a war crime (Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 8(2)(b)(xxv)).
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, this prohibition “has hardened into a rule of customary international law.” (Customary IHL – Rule 53. Starvation as a Method of Warfare). This means that the prohibition is legally binding even in the absence of codification in treaty or statute. As such, the prohibition is part of the “law of nations”: “Customary law, also known as the law of nations, applies when no other authority is available to create a law.” (Library of Congress, Research Guides, Public International Law: A Beginner’s Guide, International Custom). It follows that Israel’s months-long blockade of food and other essentials into Gaza is to be condemned as a “crime” under Catholic moral teaching.
I hesitate to even offer up facts in support of the conclusion that Israel is committing the crime, in violation of the law of nations and Church teaching, of starvation as a method of warfare. If the proliferation of pictures of mothers holding their emaciated, dying children is not enough to move a U.S. Catholic Church leader to teach what the faith commands, then we have reached a point of decline that I would rather not contemplate at the moment. If necessary, I would refer you to the “Gaza Fact Sheet” cited above.
What Must Be Done
First, name it. Name the violations of Catholic moral teaching that are being committed by Israel, with the aid and support of the United States. Calls for a ceasefire and dialogue are anemic and deceptive in their equalizing tone. The United States is not arming and providing political cover for Hamas. It is arming and providing political cover for Israel as it continues to violate Catholic moral teaching. “One is morally bound to resist orders that command genocide.” (CCC at 2313). Certainly, one is also morally bound to resist the policy of one’s government when that policy renders one’s country complicit in the gross violations of Catholic moral teaching that we are witnessing in Gaza.
Second, such resistance must include support for a U.S. arms embargo on Israel. If Archbishop Lori or any other leader within the Archdiocese of Baltimore disagrees with this position, then we, as Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, are entitled to an explanation.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter with any leader within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. At the very least, I would ask for a written response. Time, of course, is of the essence.
Jeffrey M. Ross
Suzanne M. Fontanesi