Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine issued a statement on just war theory “In light of recent public comments regarding the Catholic Church’s teaching on war and peace.”

“For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war,” said Auxiliary Bishop James Massa of Brooklyn. “A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2308).”

Bishop Massa explained, “That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.’”

“When Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ,” Bishop Massa added. “The consistent teaching of the Church is insistent that all people of good will must pray and work toward lasting peace while avoiding the evils and injustices that accompany all wars.”

In an editorial entitled “Popes and wars in the contemporary era,” a Vatican spokesman wrote that “as people return to speaking about a ‘just war,’ it is worth recalling the teaching on peace of the Popes who have succeeded one another on the Chair of Peter over the past hundred years.”

“This teaching has gradually been enriched and deepened, to the point of recognizing how increasingly difficult it is to claim that a ‘just war’ exists,” said Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication. He added:

Reflections based on the theology of past centuries and possible justifications for war fail to take into account that when theologians of earlier times wrote about these issues, wars were fought with swords and clubs—not with deadly weapons and machine-guided drones, a reality that raises moral questions of dramatic intensity. There has been a growing awareness that war is not a path to be followed.

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