Bishop Zaidan’s Appeal to Trump Exposes the Bankruptcy of Conciliar Diplomacy
National Catholic Register reports that Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, a native of Lebanon and chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, issued an appeal to President Donald Trump on April 9, 2026, urging humanitarian aid and a negotiated peace for Lebanon following Israeli strikes that killed over 300 people. The article describes the displacement of more than one million people, the killing of Father Pierre al-Rahi, and the destruction of Catholic communities in southern Lebanon. Bishop Zaidan expressed gratitude for the U.S.-Iran ceasefire while lamenting that Lebanon was excluded from the agreement. He called for the disarmament of Hezbollah, the implementation of U.N. resolutions, and quoted the antipope Leo XIV’s Easter message. The article presents the bishop’s appeal as a reasonable, pastoral response to a humanitarian catastrophe. This is precisely the problem: the entire framework of the appeal — its reliance on secular diplomacy, United Nations resolutions, and the authority of an antipope — reveals the total theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the conciliar sect’s approach to war, peace, and the governance of nations.


