Christ of course said that there will always be wars and rumors of war. Wars involve great evils, but they are usually caused by great evils that existed prior to the wars. Viewing war as an evil that exists separate and apart on its own, is a popular superstition, but it is erroneous. Since World War II the popes have adopted a reflexive pacifism foreign to traditional Catholic beliefs on war and peace, where justice was the prime consideration in assessing the morality of a war. Condemning wars without taking justice into consideration is to stand morality on its head, a true sign of the moral chaos of our times, as well as causing popes to make statements that are manifestly untrue: “War does not solve problems” being merely one example.
So true – moral decay in a society and in an individual is worse than war. People don’t go to hell because they fought in a war. But they do go to hell if their soul has lost God. Too bad our modern world does not understand this.
The Church used to know how to deal with Islam…..I am paraphrasing a quote from Canon Talarico.
As I posted on Twitter / X, here is something his Holiness needs to consider:
“Technically, we did a surgical strikes against Iranian uranium enrichment facilities to prevent the mad mullahs from acquiring fission bombs. We attacked no civilians, nor even Iranian military personnel except any guarding the IAEA-illegal enrichment facilities. Israel and America are the good guys. The mad mullahs are evil. The Iranian people are innocent, caught in the cross fire.”
Too bad we didn’t know that *before* WWII.
He might be right.
Leaving the Vatican to sweat out it’s modernism in a Nazified Europe or in some exiled location might have spared plus countless decades of post Vatican II evil.
Nevertheless, even if I had Doc Brown in my contacts list, I wouldn’t go back and change the liberation of Europe – or stop Charles Martel, or the Reconquista, or Lepanto. Our adversaries are not pacifists, and self defense is no sin.
Just 2¢ from an “unreconstructed” Catholic.
Remembering Lepanto. Our Lady, Queen of the Holy Rosary, pray for us.
Our Lady of Victory, place us under your protection and thwart the plans of destruction by the enemies of thy Son’s Holy Cross.
[…] Leo XIV Sweet Order’s Reign Embrace:Summary of Pope Leo XIV’s Weekend – Rome ReportsWars & Rumors of Wars – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American CatholicLeo, in Address to Govt Officials, Cites […]
I suspect that the change in “approach” had to do with the duplicitousness of the combatants in modern wars. Gone were the days when sovereigns protected the interests of the Church (in addition, no doubt, to their own more dubious war aims).
At the same time, there is a decided difference between the “Liberal Democracies” (historically hostile to the Church) and their enemies, notably the Communist regimes, out and out set on destroying the Church completely.
So, I can have more sympathy with a Benedict XV or a Pius XII condemning both sides alike than I can with a Paul VI turning a blind eye to the evils of world Socialism.
I suspect that the change in “approach” had to do with the duplicitousness of the combatants in modern wars. Gone were the days when sovereigns protected the interests of the Church (in addition, no doubt, to their own more dubious war aims).
Not really. The worst sack of Rome was in 1527 and went on for nine months. The army that did it was commanded by that great protector of the Church Charles V: due to his inability to pay the army he used to fight the Pope the sack occurred. Many Catholic monarchs down the centuries wreaked much havoc on the Church. Post World War II pacifism is a product of a turn to pacifism in Europe and to a lesser extent in the Americas. Growth of materialism, waning of religion and patriotism, idiot Leftism that also has infected the Church, the blood baths of the two World Wars and the widespread belief that freedom is really free, rather than a hard won prize that can vanish over night. A significant factor also is that Popes now rule a postage stamp kingdom. When they ruled the Papal States prior to 1871, there was precious little patience for pacifism.
I am not a fan of John Stuart Mills. I got: “Shut up and sit down.” in philosophy 101. Lifeboat ethics. Survival of the fittest.
In Delaware seven fishermen survived on a boat built for four for several days.
Divine Providence kept the men alive until they were rescued.
IN GOD WE TRUST.
Now, I am afraid. A war of self-defense and that of our neighbor is a corporal work of mercy.
Human dignity for the murderer but not for his victim is nonsense.
The Pope is like a lot of American bishops. He sounds like a randomly selected NGO employee. “War does not solve problems. On the contrary, it amplifies them” is a fatuous statement.
==
One of the amusing bits collected by Sasha Baron Cohen in his “Ali G” persona was an exchange with a young bourgeois on a street at a political protest who says to him “because violence solves nothing”. He says, “Yaas it does man! We use it all da time in da ghetto and it gets you just what you want!”. The Pope has no understanding of the range of things people may want (or, at least, he wants his audience to believe he has no understanding). Iran’s 46 year long rage fest against the United States and Israel (which has no real justification) looks bizarre outside of discrete portions of the world; it is still abidingly real.
I understand what you’re saying, Don, but the sack of Rome in 1527 is not the best example. Charles V was not present of course. He regretted what happened. The Lanzknechte that committed the outrages were by and large Protestants. He certainly protected the Church’s interests in the New World, in Spain (he was instrumental in reviving the Inquisition to deal with the Lutheran plot), in the Spanish Netherlands, etc.
Contrast that with the Liberal Democracies of World War I: Benedict XV’s peace proposal was rejected out of hand by Wilson and Col. House (the Habsburgs had to go!). The fighting was prolonged in order to satisfy armament manufacturers. In the next war, the U.S. bombed Rome, turned back (at gunpoint) refugees from the Soviet Union, dispossessed the Sudeten Germans, etc.
Finally (thank you for indulging me in this long comment!), the statement that the popes were not so pacifistic when they ruled over the Papal States is far too sweeping. Pius IX only allowed a “symbolic” resistance by his troops at the Porta Pia. Pius VII before him, Pius VI even, were not eager to take up arms. It’s true, though, that they relied on other Powers to do the heavy lifting, but the papacy is, in the main, a voice for peace. I mean, without the Popes, there would not have been a Pax Dei or a Truce of God in the Middle Ages.
I’m standing with the Holy Father on this one. I’ll leave it to others to call his statements “fatuous.”
The fighting was prolonged in order to satisfy armament manufacturers.
The Merchants of Death meme was popular in the thirties and with Pope Francis but there is not a shred of evidence to sustain it. World War I was so prolonged because none of the powers had any interest in a compromise peace, and there was precious interest in such a peace among the populations at war after so many deaths.
Pio Nono relied upon French bayonets to keep him in power in Rome. The defeat of France in the Franco Prussian War signaled the end of papal control of Rome. I may do a monograph one day upon the fascinating alliance of Napoleon III and Pio Nono in retirement. It needs a thorough modern treatment.
“which has no real justification” – Art it is, and has been, completely justified under Islam. Eradicate the Jewish State and any obstacle to the spread of Islam ie. the USA and its allies.
The purpose of Islam is to spread and multiply and “Islamify” the world. That is the whole purpose of why Islam exists. Any moral instructions or way to live to be a “good” Muslim is just a side note. It makes no sense that much of the world does not understand this. I mean, there is no other religion that exists with such unbridled ambition. Know it by its fruits- war, conflict, oppression and instability. These go hand in hand with Islam. Iran is the hammer of Muhammad.