“Christianity has the means to give meaning”

How can Christians contribute to ethical reflection on war?

Christians must regain a historical conscience, in other words a compass. In the United States as in Europe emerges a very conservative, counter-cultural Catholicism, in contrast to “smiling”, humanist Catholicism, in which the pacifist current is rooted.

But the identity nostalgia idealize history, while pacifists deny the complexity of reality. This stiffening testifies to an identity crisis, in a world where we no longer have a compass. Now Christianity, inscribed in history and turned towards its accomplishment, has the means to give meaning.

Pope Francis has multiplied pacifist remarks. Has this marked a break with the teaching of its predecessors?

Indeed, Pope Francis expressed a radical pacifism, far beyond the teaching of the previous popes, even if he is part of the famous “War never again” of Paul VI in the United Nations Tribune in 1965.

In encyclical Fratelli Tutti (All brothers, October 3, 2020), he deemed exceeded the doctrine of the just war assumed by the Church to assess the morality of the war: “It is very difficult to defend the rational criteria, matured in other times, to speak of a possible” just war “” (§258).

François, however, has not changed the formulations of the catechism of the Catholic Church on this subject (§2309), but for him, all war is necessarily unfair.

What are the conditions for a “” just war »» For the Catholic Church?

First of all, only the holder of the supreme authority, in agreement with the constitutional procedures, can trigger it. Then, it must be motivated by a “fair cause”, which ultimately rests on the principle of self -defense. She must finally aim for the return to peace. In the 16th century, at the time of the conquest of the new world by Christians, reflection on just war was extended to the way of conducting war, thus developing a right in war.

Pope Francis drew argument from the power of modern weapons to condemn any war …

Indeed. In encyclical Fratelli Tutti (published while Azerbaijan invaded Haut-Karabakh) François judged for this reason “the risks of war greater than the hypothetical utility attributed to it”. The aim of pacifism – to refuse war – is good, but this discourse brought to reality. We will never prevent a people or an attacked state from defending themselves.

In addition, to reject any ethical criterion of war is to take the risk of delivering war to the most complete immorality, and leave the field open to those who justify it by invoking God. On the contrary, we must look for objective criteria for moral action.