Bombing Suspected Drug Boats and Catholic Social Teaching

This episode is about U.S. military strikes on boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, and what Catholic Social Teaching has to say about this unfolding news story.  

Here are references and additional resources.

1. At least 104 people have been killed in a total of 28 strikes on alleged drug boats, according to the Trump administration. ABC News  December 19, 2025
2. U.S. Strikes Three Boats in the Pacific, Raising Legal and Evidentiary Questions About a Militarized Drug War – Article on Military.com 12/17/2025
3. PRESS RELEASE | The Bishops of the AEC express deep concern over the military build-up in the Southern Caribbean 10/25/2025
4. Bishops in Puerto Rico warn of ‘possible escalations’ in a US-Venezuela war  Catholic News Agency 12/2/2025
5. Venezuela’s Catholic Church Emerges as Last Moral Authority as Maduro Regime Tightens Grip  Gaudium Press 11/17/2025
6. Pope Leo calls for dialogue as US builds up military presence on Venezuelan coast  Our Sunday Visitor News 11/5/2025
7. Pope Leo urges against US incursion of Venezuela  CNN 12/2/2025
8. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D.  Statement on Caribbean Interceptions  December 3, 2025
9. Catechism of the Catholic Church – Safeguarding Peace and Avoiding War – Paragraphs 2302 to 2317, with paragraph 2309 spelling out the criteria for a just war
10. Bishop Robert Barron and Just War Theory  January 29, 2021  Engaging summary of just war theory in a 12 minute video

How to contact the White House with a message for the President or the Vice President:

– online form with comment section  https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

– write a letter to:  The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500

– call:  Comments: 202-456-1111

How to contact your U.S. Senator or U.S. Congressperson:

Go to  https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member , enter your home address, and it will pull up names and contact information for your senators and congressperson

Transcript

Welcome to “Headline News and Catholic Social Teaching,” where we take a brief look at stories in the news, not from a left or right political perspective, but through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.  I’m your host, Tom Mulhern, and my hope is that this podcast will help us grow in our love of God and love of our neighbors.  

This episode is about U.S. military strikes on boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, and what Catholic Social Teaching has to say about this unfolding news story.

From September through mid-December 2025, there have been US military strikes on at least 28 boats, resulting in 104 reported deaths.  104 deaths.

The Trump Administration justification for these lethal strikes is that the people on the boats are smuggling drugs into the United States, and the administration further asserts that the people on the boats are associated with various drug cartels which the administration has labeled as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

These strikes are taking place within the larger context of US pressure on the government of Venezuela in particular, which the US claims is directly linked to the drug cartels thought to be behind the suspected drug-smuggling boats that are being bombed.

Now, many observers, inside and outside the government, have questioned the legality of dropping bombs on suspected drug smugglers.  I’ll provide resources in the notes with more information, but I’m not going to focus on the legal question here.  I want to talk about what Catholic teaching has to say about the morality of these actions.

But first I want to make a personal comment.  Like too many families, I have a family member who is addicted to drugs.  It is a terrible, terrible thing, and destructive on so many levels.  So I am strongly in favor of efforts to reduce the supply of illegal drugs in our country, and I also think those efforts have to be legally and morally acceptable.

OK, let’s look at Catholic teaching, starting with a statement from the Catholic Bishops of the Southern Caribbean, speaking through the Antilles (an till’ eez) Episcopal Conference.  The statement, issued on October 25, 2025, expresses “grave concern” with the recent build-up of naval and other military assets in the Southern Caribbean, and the potential implications for the well-being of the region and its people.  They call for dialogue and cooperation to ease mounting tensions.  

The bishops explicitly acknowledge that the narcotics trade in the region is a devastating crisis for their people and a challenge that the Church is duty-bound to confront.  However, the bishops state that, and I’m quoting here “the arbitrary and unwarranted taking of life cannot be justified as a means of resolution.”  And the quote continues “Likewise, the disregard for the sovereignty of independent nations cannot be accepted as a reasonable measure in the name of border security.” end quote

There’s a lot more in the bishops’ two page statement.  I’ll put a link to it in the notes.  I encourage those of us who are American Catholics to read and really reflect on what the Catholic Bishops in the Southern Caribbean are saying to their own people and to us.

Another Catholic voice from the region comes from Puerto Rico, which of course is a US territory.  The Puerto Rican Bishops’ Conference has expressed its opposition to the militarization being carried out by the United States on the island and in the Caribbean Sea region, warns of the “possible escalations” of a war with Venezuela, and denounces the “adverse effects” of militarization, such as the restriction of airspace and maritime routes and military maneuvers in different towns in Puerto Rico.

It’s important to note that none of these Catholic voices from the Caribbean are expressing support for the current regime in Venezuela.  Nicolas Maduro heads a dictatorial state that has stayed in power through fraudulent elections, harsh repression of opposition, and flagrant human rights abuses.  The Catholic Bishops in Venezuela are one of the few internal voices of opposition to Maduro’s regime.

Pope Leo has been diplomatic but clear on the topic of US military action in the region.  In comments to reporters on December 2, 2025, the Pope said he believes the United States needs to find “another way” in dealing with the situation in Venezuela, warning against any military incursion and saying it would be better to pursue dialogue or apply economic pressure.  He made similar comments a month earlier, when the pope said quote “I think that with violence, we don’t win,” “The important thing is to seek dialogue, to try in a fair way to find solutions to the problems that may exist in any country.” end quote

Then on December 3, Timothy Broglio, who is the Catholic archbishop for the military services, USA, issued an important statement on US military action in the Caribbean.  This came in the aftermath of revelations about the so-called “double-tap” incident in September, when US forces reportedly bombed a boat and then bombed it again after observing survivors clinging to the wreckage.  It appears that there were no survivors after the second strike.

In his statement, Archbishop Broglio expresses concern for drug trafficking and the use of illegal narcotics in the United States, and emphasizes the importance of dismantling the criminal networks responsible for the flow of drugs into our country.  He goes on to state that the use of military force in this effort must be ethical and legal, and that those suspected of committing a crime (in this case, the suspected drug smugglers) are entitled to due process under the law.

He then makes a statement that has been widely reported, and I quote it here: 

“As the moral principle forbidding the intentional killing of noncombatants is inviolable, it would be an illegal and immoral order to kill deliberately survivors on a vessel who pose no immediate lethal threat to our armed forces.” end quote

An illegal and immoral order. . . that’s pretty strong stuff, and crystal clear.

Archbishop Broglio, who knows a thing or two about the military, then makes the practical observation that there is a legal way to intercept a suspicious vessel, board it, have members of the Coast Guard on hand who have the authority to make arrests, and then have the courts determine guilt and punishment.  He states that the rule of law must guide all actions, and that abandoning due process undermines human rights, erodes public trust, and risks harming innocent people.

There’s a link to Archbishop Broglio’s statement in the notes.  It demonstrates both well-established Catholic teaching and patriotic love of country.

And in his statement, Archbishop Broglio provides a summary of the key principles of Catholic Social Teaching at play here, when he says that quote

“In the fight against drugs, the end never justifies the means, which must be moral, in accord with the principles of the just war theory, and always respectful of the dignity of each human person. “ end quote

Catholic Just War Theory is a moral framework that sets strict criteria for when war is morally permissible.  It emphasizes among other things that nations should only engage in war as a last resort when all other means have failed to ward off an unjust aggressor and protect innocent life.  Far from justifying war, Catholic just war theory strictly limits the conditions, all of which must be present, for war to be morally permissible.  See the notes for more information about just war theory.

It sets a very high bar, and I haven’t found any leaders of the Catholic faith – in America or around the world – who have come out saying that the US military bombing of suspected drug smuggling boats meets the just war criteria.  To the contrary, Catholic bishops and the pope are calling for a more restrained and morally principled approach to the very real problem of the illegal drug trade.

So what can people like you and me do about this particular issue?  Well, prayer is always a good response, and in this case, prayer may be the most practical thing most of us can do.  I’m a big fan of praying the rosary, and when we pray the rosary for peace, as instructed by Our Lady of Fatima, we can do so not simply as an act of piety, but as a spiritual way to resist the evils of illegal drug trafficking, which are anything but peaceful.  

We can also let our political leaders know what our faith tells us.  Contact the President and tell him that you’re a Catholic and your faith teaches you that killing people suspected of drug smuggling without due process is not morally acceptable.  You can send a similar message to your representatives in Congress, as they will be – or should be, according to the Constitution – involved in any formal declaration of war in the region, if it comes to that.  As of late December 2025 when I’m recording this episode, we can still hope and pray that it won’t come to that.  There is information in the notes about how to communicate with these public officials.

And I know that it can feel like a waste of time to contact public officials, because it’s a pretty good bet that our messages aren’t going to change any minds.  If we’re thinking in political terms, that’s probably true.  But if we approach it as a way to witness to our faith, a way to take the light of Christ that is flickering in our soul out from under a bushel basket and put it on a lampstand for someone else to see, then God can use that light for our good and the good of His kingdom.  So let it shine, let it shine.

OK, that’s all for this episode of “Headline News and Catholic Social Teaching.”  If you found it worthwhile, I invite you to share it with others.  If this is your first episode and you’d like to learn more about me or the podcast, I encourage you to listen to Episode 1 Introduction.

And I hope that, in some small way, this episode might help us live our lives guided by the Holy Spirit through the teachings of the Church.  

Thank you for listening.