Leo XIV defends a “disarmed and disarming peace”

The first words of Leo XIV on the evening of his election had been for “a disarmed and disarming peace”. However, this is the complete opposite of what the world shows, and God is not spared in this generalized warmongering. Putin and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill partly justified the aggression against Ukraine by citing a crusade “against the atheistic and decadent West.” The conflict in the Middle East is the junction point of several crusades: Trump and the Zionist evangelicals who surround him on one side, the Iranian mullahs and Hezbollah (which means “party of God”) on the other.

Remains, in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the very old concept of “just war”. He was largely abandoned by Francis, criticized for having sent back to back, to Ukraine, attacked and aggressor. Our American Pope, more nuanced on this subject, still seems to largely follow in the footsteps of his predecessor.

The “just war”, in Catholic doxa, depends on very strict conditions: responding to a direct threat of aggression, being well prepared in order to limit the suffering of populations, only acting if the benefits are greater than the harm caused. None of these conditions were met when Donald Trump launched his war.

Leo XIV, judged (too) discreet, raised his voice as the American president spoke of destroying Iran in an hour, and other apocalyptic remarks. During his African tour, Léon attacked the exaltation of force and the “tyrants” who justify war in the name of God. God is peace, we cannot get it back. Point.

Leo XIV calls for upstream responsibilities: wars, as the tragedy of Sudan shows, are encouraged by a general race for rearmament and by the flourishing sale of arms which must then be used. They also prosper because in Africa and elsewhere predators seize natural resources, and respect for international law is flouted, the UN despised. It was as a brilliant jurist and canonist that Léon underlined this.