The Catholic critique of war is hiding in plain sight

Those who put their faith in war dominate global headlines. Calls for invasions and occupations, attacks and counterattacks, airstrikes and arms packages unite those who embrace military force across the world’s battlefields and centers of power.

There is, however, another view hiding in plain sight. The world’s largest Christian denomination — numbering 1.4 billion people, including President Biden — has spent decades developing a comprehensive case against war. What Roman Catholicism has to say about war is too little known, including among Catholics, in a world that badly needs to hear it.

The last century has seen Catholic teaching move in a much more antiwar direction. While there is still ambiguity about whether armed force is ever morally permitted in exceptional circumstances, the church now overwhelmingly emphasizes a broader, systematic, and clear condemnation of warfare itself. Indeed, just last month saw Pope Francis flatly state: “war is in itself a crime against humanity.”

The Catholic case against war begins with an unsparing look at the suffering it unleashes. For Francis, wars “bring only death and destruction in their wake.” In his encyclical “Fratelli Tutti,” he urges people to move beyond “theoretical discussions” of war and look to its victims to truly “grasp the abyss of evil at the heart of war.”

Here he echoes one of his predecessors, John Paul II, who in “Centesimus Annus” writes: “No, never again war, which destroys the lives of innocent people, teaches how to kill, throws into upheaval even the lives of those who do the killing and leaves behind a trail of resentment and hatred.” Elsewhere John Paul II highlights warfare’s “millions and millions of victims, families and countries destroyed, an ocean of refugees, misery, hunger, disease, underdevelopment and the loss of immense resources.”

To those who acknowledge war’s terrible toll but still consider it necessary, Catholic teaching responds that war consistently fails to deliver what it promises. As Francis puts it, “the force of arms is deceptive.” It offers “a false sense of security.” John Paul II asserts that history reveals “the failure of recourse to violence as a means for resolving political and social problems” and that the suffering and anger warfare leaves behind make “it all the more difficult to find a just solution of the very problems which provoked the war.”

For Catholic teaching, war makes things worse rather than better by feeding cycles of violence. In “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” Paul VI writes that “the force of arms” is unacceptable because “violence always provokes violence and irresistibly engenders new forms of oppression and enslavement which are often harder to bear than those from which they claimed to bring freedom.” John Paul II warns that “wars are often the cause of further wars because they fuel deep hatreds, create situations of injustice and trample upon people’s dignity and rights.” And Francis simply states: “War begets war.”

Three alternatives to war

In the face of war’s failures, the Vatican points to three alternatives. The first is the global turn toward nonviolent resistance movements. John Paul II highlights how this has “helped to defeat the various forms of totalitarianism” and become an effective way to “counter the armed aggressor,” while Francis calls nonviolence “more powerful than violence.”

The second is preventing war in the first place by strengthening international institutions, laws, and norms that promote mutual aid and delegitimize war in favor of diplomacy and mediation. In “Mater et Magistra,” John XXIII praises “an ever-extending network of societies and organizations which set their sights beyond the aims and interests of individual countries” to promote collaboration for the global common good.

And the Vatican’s “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” advocates greater political authority “exercised at the level of the international community” to facilitate collective security. John Paul II writes, “Peace and international law are closely linked” and urges countries to embrace, “in place of war, reliable procedures for the resolution of conflicts.” Similarly, Francis advocates “tireless recourse to negotiation, mediation and arbitration.”        

Catholic teaching’s third alternative is targeting the underlying causes of war by alleviating the economic and political injustices that drive it. In Paul VI’s famous formulation: “If you want Peace, work for Justice.” This means state and nonstate actors working around the globe to reduce poverty, exploitation, and political oppression, since these are, according to John Paul II, “at the root of war.”

This is why the church has long supported economic development efforts targeting global poverty. Francis states, “There can be no true peace unless we show ourselves capable of developing a more just economic system,” which John Paul II asserts “involves sacrificing the positions of income and of power enjoyed by the more developed economies.” It is also why Catholic teaching advocates for democracy, the rule of law, effective governance, and human rights. Benedict XVI urges “the consolidation of democratic regimes capable of ensuring freedom and peace,” and writes, “A true and stable peace presupposes respect for human rights.”

Is it realistic?

At this point, you might find Catholic teaching’s take on war morally inspiring but wonder about its practicality. Is all this realistic? Actually, it is. My recent book, “The Catholic Case Against War: A Brief Guide,” details just how well this teaching lines up with what secular research has found about the nature of armed conflict. 

A few examples: Military action has a dreadful record of achieving its objectives. Warfare is much more likely to lead to mass atrocities against civilians than prevent them. It is especially unsuccessful in preventing terrorism. Nonviolent civil resistance methods are two-to-three times more effective in defeating domestic dictators or foreign occupiers compared to armed force, and when successful, they are much more likely to produce democracy, human rights and lasting peace.

Most wars today are civil wars, which are usually relapses of previous conflicts that experience chronic cycles of stop-and-start fighting, and there are effective ways the international community can help break these cycles of violence. International agreements can create norms and institutions that really do shape the behavior of state and nonstate actors without resorting to military force. And widely-shared prosperity, inclusive democratic institutions, the rule of law, effective governance and human rights protections are all associated with reductions in the likelihood of war.

So, it turns out, what Catholic teaching has to say about war is not only morally powerful, but deeply realistic too. In a world loud with cries for war, it is an alternative voice that deserves a wider hearing.