BLOG POST | Hey Deacon!

 
Back in March 2022, I wrote an article pertaining to the Church’s teaching on ‘just wars’.  The impetus for the article was due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.  Now with the threat of a larger war due to the attacks against Israel, the same moral compass is at play, what is ‘just’?
 

A quick recap on what the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2309) states conditions for a war to be considered “just’:

• the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
• all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
• there must be serious prospects of success;
• the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

To fight a "just war", involves using means that are appropriate.  Innocent people and non-combatants should not be harmed, and internationally agreed conventions regulating war must be obeyed.

In a June 2022 interview, Pope Francis said, “I believe it is time to rethink the concept of a ‘just war.’ A war may be just.  There is the right to defend oneself, but we need to rethink the way that the concept is used nowadays.”  He said that “the use and possession of nuclear weapons are immoral. Resolving conflicts through war is saying no to verbal reasoning, to being constructive. … War is essentially a lack of dialogue.”  He went on to say how the lack of dialogue is an aggravating factor in the current state of world affairs.

Pope Francis recalled a visit to war cemeteries in Europe, including the Redipuglia World War I memorial and Anzio World War II cemetery in Italy.  He said, “When the anniversary of the landing in Normandy was commemorated, I thought of the 30,000 boys who were left dead on the beach. They opened the boats and said, ‘get off, get off,’ they were ordered while the Nazis waited for them. Is that justified? Visiting military cemeteries in Europe helps one realize this.”

The pope said that the situation in Europe today shows that the United Nations “has no power” to stop a war.  “After World War II, trust was placed in the United Nations. It is not my intention to offend anybody, I know there are very good people working there, but at this point, the UN has no power to assert,” he said.

“It does help to avoid wars —but to stop a war, to solve a conflict situation like the one we are living today in Europe, or like the ones lived in other parts of the world, it (United Nations) has no power.”

Regarding the current situation in Israel, Pope Francis is pleading for peace, for de-escalation.  “Please stop the attacks and the weapons.  Understand that terrorism and war do not lead to any solution, but only to the death and suffering of so many innocent people. War is always a defeat! Every war is a defeat!”

May we, the Body of Christ, join our Holy Father in his prayers and his stance for world peace.




Author Bio:
Deacon Dan Vaughn