The priority of peace fundamentally grounds Augustine’s just war theory. Pacifism is not incidental but essential to it.
War and Peace
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Asked about regime change in Iran, Pope Leo says, ‘I cannot be in favor of war.’
“The question is not whether there is regime change or no regime change; the question is how to promote the values in which we believe without the death of so many innocent people.”
Posted inDispatches
How to justly conduct an unjust war? Catholic scholars weigh in on Iran
Nine leading Catholic scholars give their take on what duties just war theory requires of the United States at this stage of its conflict with Iran.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo: I am ‘not trying to debate the president’
Some journalists have sought to interpret Leo’s statements in Africa in an anti-Trump light, even though they were all written many days before the president made his statement on social media.
Posted inNews
US bishops’ doctrine chair defends church’s just war tradition after JD Vance comments
Shortly after Vice President JD Vance appeared to warn Pope Leo XIV to “be careful” when speaking about theology and taking issue with his description of the U.S. conflict in Iran as unjust, the U.S. bishops’ point-man on doctrine issued a forceful statement on the Church’s teaching about just war theory.
Posted inDispatches
South Africa’s Cardinal Brislin: Trump cannot silence Pope Leo or the church
Attacking “the sanctity of the church and the papacy, and the deeper moral vision they represent, is not acceptable and cannot be met with silence,” Cardinal Stephen Brislin said.
Posted inDispatches
The war’s impact on the ‘forgotten’ Christians of Lebanon and Israel
The conflict between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militia has deeply affected Lebanon’s most marginalized populations.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo in Algeria: ‘The future belongs to men and women of peace’
“The true struggle for liberation will be definitively won only when peace in our hearts has finally been achieved,” Leo said upon his arrival in Algeria.
Posted inOf Many Things
Trump is trying to distract us from Pope Leo’s calls for peace. Don’t take the bait.
If you are outraged—which would be both understandable and justifiable—by President Donald Trump’s social media attack last night on Pope Leo, take a moment to step back and follow the pope’s example rather than taking the president’s bait.
Posted inNews
Pope Leo says he has ‘no fear’ of Trump or preaching the Gospel
Pope Leo XIV said April 13 he has “no fear” of President Donald Trump’s administration in response to the president’s criticism Sunday night on Truth Social.