Pope Leo on War

The Roman Pontiff surely understands Christian just war doctrine. Yet, his statements don't show it.

Pope Leo is not all wrong to criticise President Trump’s war on Iran.

On the one hand, the Islamic Republic has shown no signs of giving up its intention to acquire nuclear weapons. Were it to succeed, it would pose an existential threat to Israel, which it is publicly committed to destroying. Therefore, the targeted use of armed force to delay or halt its nuclear progress would be justified.

On the other hand, however, the President’s ambitions appear to go well beyond, to reaching for the goal of bringing about regime change. Given the atrociously repressive character of the current Iranian regime—responsible for killing at least 20,000 protesters since January—that would be highly desirable. But only if a better one could be successfully installed in its place. Yet, as far as I can tell, there is no obvious alternative, and, even if there were, bombing from the air alone could not install it.

Moreover, the President went to war without bothering to consult the US’s customary allies, expected them to turn up when things got sticky, and then insulted and threatened them when they refused to do so.

There is plenty to criticise, therefore, in Trump’s reckless belligerency.

But there is, too, in Leo’s response. In a Palm Sunday homily at the end of March, the Pope warned that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war”. In his Easter message on April 5^th, noting that Jesus had been “entirely nonviolent” in the face of suffering, he called upon “those who have weapons [to] lay them down”. And two days later he urged “all people of goodwill to always search for peace and not violence, to reject war”.

His Holiness Pope Leo XIV. Credit: Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar, via Wikimedia

I confess that this irked me. Its vapidity irked me. It irked me, because everyone wants peace. Even Vladimir Putin wants peace—on his own terms. The crucial question is when peace is sufficiently unjust as to be intolerable. The Pope’s statements suggest that he thinks that any kind of peace is tolerable, that peace of any kind is preferable to war. That implies that he thinks that Ukraine should never have taken up arms to resist Russia’s invasion, that it should stop fighting now, and that it should suffer whatever consequences Putin chooses to impose. For Ukraine, too, had weapons, did not lay them down, and now wages (defensive) war.