On October 27, 2026, Pope Leo XIV was scheduled to participate in the infamous Interreligious Meeting for Peace in Assisi initiated by John Paul II in 1986. Due to his unexpected cancer surgery, he had to cancel. But he sent a video message, declaring that "war can never be waged in the name of God." He also stated, "There is no such thing as a holy war: Only peace is holy." Saying this, he followed his predecessors in emphatically condemning all war. This, however, transgresses the teaching of Scriptures, the Church Doctors and the Church Magisterium on Just War.

In his work War, Just War, Atila Guimarães shows how Catholic Morals defends waging a just war. Here we find a summary of the teaching of St. Robert Bellarmine on the right to wage war in the name of justice, as well as charity. His opinion, as Guimarães notes, is confirmed by St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory the Great, St. Gregory of Tours, St. Leo IV and St. Leo IX, among others.

St. Robert Bellarmine

“Just as Natural Law permits an individual to return, even by violent means, an unjust aggression against his life, his fortune or his honor, for a stronger reason the same is permitted to a nation, which constitutes a political body, and forms a moral and public person.

“The head of this nation not only has the right but also the duty to use this means for the interest of the common good, for which he is responsible. This right and duty extends not only to the strictly defensive war, but also to the offensive war, when it is necessary … in face of a real danger. (Il controversia generalist. De membris Ecclesiae militantis)

*
“One cannot suppose that God, who is the supreme Author and Legislator of nature, would have granted to societies and individuals the right of self-defense – i.e., for societies the right to wage war – and yet by another law, such as the law of charity, would have always forbidden the waging of war. If this were the case, the right to wage war would be a useless and ridiculous right repugnant to Divine Wisdom.

“It would have been, as well, a flagrant contradiction between Two Commandments of the Decalogue, one permitting and another forbidding the same thing, which also would contradict the wisdom of the Divine Legislator.

“Therefore, one can affirm as an a priori and secure truth that war, which it is just – that is, legitimate by Natural Law – cannot at the same time and obey its own nature (ex natura sua) be illegitimate with regard to the law of charity. If, in some cases, the law of charity is opposed to the exercise of this right [to wage war], this is so only in some particular aspects (per accidens), and not in a general way.” (De laicis, chap 14 in Opera omnia.

Excerpt from War, Just War by Atila S Guimarães,
 Los Angeles: TIA, 2004, pp. 60-61
Posted on October 31, 2026

Share

Follow us

Related Topics of Interest

 Moral Criteria for Just War

 Just War Supported by Scriptures

 Catholic Principles on War up to Hiroshima & Nagasaki

 Is There Nothing Worse than War?

 Traditional Teaching & New Ways of Waging War

The Pacifist Utopia of the Conciliar Popes




Related Works of Interest