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\u2019s battlefields and centers of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is, however, another view hiding in plain sight. The world\u2019s largest Christian denomination \u2014 numbering 1.4 billion people, including President Biden \u2014 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>: \u201cwar is in itself a crime against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Catholic case against war begins with an unsparing look at the suffering it unleashes. For Francis,\u00a0wars<\/a>\u00a0\u201cbring only death and destruction in their wake.\u201d In his encyclical\u00a0\u201cFratelli Tutti,\u201d he\u00a0urges<\/a>\u00a0people to move beyond \u201ctheoretical discussions\u201d of war and look to its victims to truly \u201cgrasp the abyss of evil at the heart of war.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here he echoes one of his predecessors, John Paul II, who in\u00a0\u201cCentesimus Annus\u201d\u00a0writes<\/a>: \u201cNo, 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.\u201d Elsewhere John Paul II\u00a0highlights<\/a>\u00a0warfare\u2019s \u201cmillions and millions of victims, families and countries destroyed, an ocean of refugees, misery, hunger, disease, underdevelopment and the loss of immense resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To those who acknowledge war\u2019s terrible toll but still consider it necessary, Catholic teaching responds that war consistently fails to deliver what it promises. As Francis puts it<\/a>, \u201cthe force of arms is deceptive.\u201d It offers<\/a> \u201ca false sense of security.\u201d John Paul II asserts<\/a> that history reveals \u201cthe failure of recourse to violence as a means for resolving political and social problems\u201d and that<\/a> the suffering and anger warfare leaves behind make \u201cit all the more difficult to find a just solution of the very problems which provoked the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Catholic teaching, war makes things worse rather than better by feeding cycles of violence. In \u201cEvangelii Nuntiandi,\u201d Paul VI writes<\/a> that \u201cthe force of arms\u201d is unacceptable because \u201cviolence 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.\u201d John Paul II warns<\/a> that \u201cwars are often the cause of further wars because they fuel deep hatreds, create situations of injustice and trample upon people’s dignity and rights.\u201d And Francis simply states<\/a>: \u201cWar begets war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the face of war\u2019s failures, the Vatican points to three alternatives. The first is the global turn toward nonviolent resistance movements. John Paul II highlights<\/a> how this has \u201chelped to defeat the various forms of totalitarianism\u201d and become an effective way<\/a> to \u201ccounter the armed aggressor,\u201d while Francis calls<\/a> nonviolence \u201cmore powerful than violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u00a0\u201cMater et Magistra,\u201d John XXIII\u00a0praises<\/a>\u00a0\u201can ever-extending network of societies and organizations which set their sights beyond the aims and interests of individual countries\u201d to promote collaboration for the global common good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Vatican\u2019s\u00a0\u201cCompendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church\u201d\u00a0advocates<\/a>\u00a0greater political authority \u201cexercised at the level of the international community\u201d to facilitate collective security. John Paul II\u00a0writes<\/a>, \u201cPeace and international law are closely linked\u201d and\u00a0urges<\/a>\u00a0countries to embrace, \u201cin place of war, reliable procedures for the resolution of conflicts.\u201d Similarly, Francis\u00a0advocates<\/a>\u00a0\u201ctireless recourse to negotiation, mediation and arbitration.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catholic teaching\u2019s third alternative is targeting the underlying causes of war by alleviating the economic and political injustices that drive it. In Paul VI\u2019s famous\u00a0formulation<\/a>: \u201cIf you want Peace, work for Justice.\u201d This means state and nonstate actors working around the globe to reduce poverty, exploitation, and political oppression, since these are,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to John Paul II, \u201cat the root of war.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why the church has long supported economic development efforts targeting global poverty. Francis\u00a0states<\/a>, \u201cThere can be no true peace unless we show ourselves capable of developing a more just economic system,\u201d which John Paul II\u00a0asserts<\/a>\u00a0\u201cinvolves sacrificing the positions of income and of power enjoyed by the more developed economies.\u201d It is also why Catholic teaching advocates for democracy, the rule of law, effective governance, and human rights. Benedict XVI\u00a0urges<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe consolidation of democratic regimes capable of ensuring freedom and peace,\u201d and\u00a0writes<\/a>, \u201cA true and stable peace presupposes respect for human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point, you might find Catholic teaching\u2019s take on war morally inspiring but wonder about its practicality. Is all this realistic? Actually, it is. My recent book, \u201cThe Catholic Case Against War: A Brief Guide<\/a>,\u201d details just how well this teaching lines up with what secular research has found about the nature of armed conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThree alternatives to war<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Is it realistic?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n