WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — An American cardinal close to Pope Leo XIV has described a White House video montage mixing Hollywood film clips with real footage of strikes on Iran as “horrifying” and “sickening”.

“A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game — it’s sickening”, Cardinal Blase Cupich said in a statement on the diocese website.

In the 42-second video posted on X Friday with the caption “Justice the American way”, Hollywood heroics are interspersed with footage released by the US military showing real strikes on various targets.

It was a “horrifying portrayal” as “more than 1,000 Iranian men, women and children” have been killed by US and Israeli missiles, he wrote on Saturday.

“Our government is treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment, as if it’s just another piece of content to be swiped through while we’re waiting in line at the grocery store.

He warned: “we lose our humanity when we are thrilled by the destructive power of our military”.

“I know that the American people are better than this,” he wrote.

Cupich is the archbishop of Chicago, Pope Leo’s hometown and one of the largest dioceses in the US.