Robert Prevost (right), now Pope Leo XIV, at a peace rally in Rome in 1983 with fellow Augustinians. [Pax Christi Italia Archives/Wikipedia]

A just war: The origins of Pope Leo XIV’s challenges to Trump’s war in Iran

STORY BY RICHARD FOOT

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump opened a new unlikely front in his war with Iran, this time against a fellow American, Pope Leo XIV.

Beyond the extraordinary spectacle of a U.S. president attacking the leader of the Catholic Church, the quarrel shines a timely spotlight on the question of what is a just war?

The Pope has been condemning the moral conduct of the Trump administration for some time, first on immigration and now for its war on Iran. Leo described Trump’s April 7th threat to wipe Iran from the map— “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again”—as “truly unacceptable.”

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Kathy Grant, historian and co-founder of Black Canadian Veterans Stories. [Kathy Grant]

Historian Kathy Grant on preserving Canada’s Black veteran stories

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

It’s inevitable, though no less tragic, that Canada’s Second World War generation is beginning to fade from living memory, a testament to the passage of time more than 80 years after the guns fell silent.

On March 26, 2026, Alvie Burden of Tisdale, Sask., died at age 104. Not only was he reportedly the oldest Black Canadian veteran—having first served as a home-front test subject for chemical agent trials before fighting overseas—but he was also one of the last of that community from WW II.

Among those striving to preserve his legacy, alongside the many thousands of other Black veterans who have donned a uniform throughout Canadian history, is historian Kathy Grant.

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