Father Joe James, Jesuit theologian and patient advocate

Holy anger!

I am a priest. I have taken vows. I have spent my life studying the words of Jesus Christ, praying them, teaching them, trying to live inside their impossible demands.

What I am about to say comes from that place — not from politics, not from anger for its own sake — but from the absolute conviction that what is happening right now in the name of my faith is a desecration.

The United States Secretary of Defense stood at a Pentagon podium this week and prayed — out loud, on camera, in the building that commands the world’s most lethal military — for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” He closed with these words: “We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”

On Easter Sunday. The day we celebrate a man who died forgiving his executioners.

And the President of the United States called this “one of our better Easters, in a lot of different ways. Militarily, it’s been one of the best.”

This is not Christianity. This is a weapon wearing polar opposite and all Christians need to wake up and make a move. Are these your guys? Are still with them?

The Jesus I know — the Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, the Jesus who ate with sinners and told Peter to put his sword away — that Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers. He did not say blessed are those with the greatest army. He said love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. That’s what He said.

This man is in charge of our military.

Hegseth has been open about his support for an American-led repeat of the Crusades. The Crusades. In case you’ve forgotten — those were centuries of slaughter carried out in Christ’s name that the Church has spent generations repenting for.

We are watching that repentance be undone in real time. From a Pentagon podium. On Easter morning.

Pope Leo said this week that the Christian mission has often been “distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.” He said it without naming Hegseth. He didn’t have to. Everyone knew who he meant.

I am asking you — the young Catholics in this room, the young Christians, the young people who grew up in faith and are now watching it weaponized — to remember what you actually believe.

Our faith was founded by a man the state executed as a criminal. He did not go to war. He did not pray for no mercy on his enemies. He asked God to forgive them.

That is the faith. Not this.

Anger is a gift when it is directed at the right thing. The right thing right now is this: a man who clearly does not know Christ is using Him standing at the most powerful military podium in human history invoking our savior’s name to bless bombs.

This is not Christian witness. This is blasphemy.

ENOUGH.