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The short answer is, “No.”
Catholics favor peace. As the Book of Judges teaches, the Lord is peace (cf. 6:24). But to understand why Catholics favor peace, we must first understand what peace is.
Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is fullness of life (cf. Mal. 2:5). That is precisely the meaning of shalom, which implies wholeness and integral well-being in one’s physical, social, and spiritual dimensions. In this sense, peace is not a human achievement, but a gift from God. It is ultimately attained not so much by rejecting violence, but by accepting Him. The preeminent expression of this is a blessing from the Book of Numbers: “May the Lord shine his face upon you and give you peace” (Num. 6:26).
For Christians, the peace that God desires for the world was given definitively in Jesus, the “Prince of Peace” (cf. Is. 9:5). In Christ, we come to see peace not merely as a static state of affairs, but in the dynamism of a person. Jesus Himself “is our peace” (Eph. 2:14).
Much more could be said about how Jesus fulfills that promise of peace by reconciling God and man through His death and resurrection, but for now, suffice it to say that peace—in its fullest sense—is not just a Christian ideal, but the very heart of the Gospel message.
And yet, peace “fails.” I don’t need to argue for that. The world is ravaged by war, as it always has been.
But peace doesn’t fail because of God. It fails because of us. Despite having a highly developed “just-war” theory, the Catholic Church has never advocated—and will never advocate—war as a preferred method of resolving international conflict. “War can never be an adequate means for completely resolving problems between nations,” said Pope St. John Paul II with vigor in 1991. “It never has been and never will!”
At the very least, we can say that Catholics urge world leaders to seek every possible means of resolving conflicts before resorting to arms. Chief among these, of course, are dialogue and negotiation.
If these fail, a nation may legitimately use force, provided that the “damage inflicted by the aggressor” is “lasting, grave, and certain.” There must also be “serious prospects of success,” and “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated” (CCC 2309).
So much for the just-war doctrine. We still don’t have an answer to the question of whether Catholics can favor any particular use of force should they believe all the conditions of a just war are met.
If it’s any consolation, the first thing to say is that, in most cases, it doesn’t matter, because it’s not directly up to you. The task of evaluating the circumstances surrounding a threat and determining whether the use of force is legitimate falls to “those who have responsibility for the common good.” To a certain extent, in a democratic republic, such responsibility pertains to all citizens, but to each in his or her respective way. In the United States, such responsibility belongs primarily to Congress, who has the sole authority to formally declare war, and, in his constitutional role as Commander-in-Chief, the president.
That’s not to say that Catholics shouldn’t make their voice heard at the polls, in public demonstrations, and in letters to congressional representatives. That, in fact, is their duty as citizens. Moreover, Catholics don’t have to wait for a directive from the Vatican or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The pope and the bishops will never publicly declare that some particular war is just (though they will come close to saying that certain wars are unjust).
The problem is that we live in a world where everyone has to have an opinion, and everyone is constantly listening to everybody else’s opinion on the internet. Catholics are judged “good” or “bad” depending on whether they support this or that war. They feel pressure to take a strong position on a specific intervention, and to do it as Catholics rather than as citizens.
It’s highly unlikely you will ever have all the necessary information to judge whether an armed intervention is legitimate according to the just-war criteria outlined above. On the other hand, there are cases where it is easy to determine whether a particular use of force is unjust, such as when civilians are targeted, terrorism is embraced, chemical weapons are deployed, or attempts are made to eliminate entire national, ethnic, religious, or linguistic groups.
As difficult as it is to determine whether any particular war is just or not, there is one thing Catholics must always do, and which they probably do too little of. And that is to pray.
Unless you are a leader entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the common good, you have no need—as a Catholic—to take a solid position on the justness of any particular war. You do have a responsibility to pray for peace, and to pray for it fervently. “It is more necessary than ever,” wrote Pope Leo XIV in his first Message for the World Day of Peace, “to cultivate prayer, spirituality, and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue as paths of peace and as languages of encounter within traditions and cultures.” For most of us, that is a much more profitable use of time then listening endlessly to talking heads praising or denouncing any particular military action.
Many will think I’m being soft. Many will accuse me of copping out. Many will think I’m a pacifist.
But I’m simply inviting Catholics to redirect their attention and energy to deepening the faith that empowers us to navigate a dizzyingly complicated world and to serve our brothers and sisters in a way most concordant with the Faith we profess each Sunday.
For many years, I was fully engaged in promoting peace through research, writing, and diplomacy, especially during my service in the Vatican’s state department. The only thing that kept me from being overwhelmed by the horrendous violations of human rights and appalling persecutions of millions of innocent men, women, and children in many parts of the globe was the practice of prayer. The assurance it gave me that God is still at work in the world did not in any way detach me from the urgent task of promoting justice and advocating peace, especially by striving to protect the innocent and giving voice to the vulnerable.
Egregious violations of human rights must not be tolerated. The means of assuring those revered rights are various, and they do not exclude armed intervention. So, without a prayer life, anger, despair, and cynicism would have gotten the best of me long ago.
One thing I’ve learned is that anyone who believes that God sent His Son into the world to be our peace can—indeed must—always pray.
Where to start? Try this prayer by Pope Francis. Start anywhere. Start today.
Photo by Richard R. Schünemann on Unsplash
