Reject legitimacy of war - Pope Francis

Kyiv victim of powerplay of world leaders. Photo: Ukrainian State Emergency Service

Today is the 513th day of the war in Ukraine. The conceit of Western nations in provoking the conflict, and the callousness of the Russian leadership in launching its assault on such a closely related neighbour, and subsequently on homes and other civilian targets, are lessons in evil that are impacting the world in many ways, with the greatest toll as always on the most innocent. 

Clearly many societies and the elites populating leading institutions have grown lax in maintaining a firm intention of preserving peace and making peace with those who stand opposed to their vital beliefs and traditions. Therefore, any opportunity to gain insight into how to achieve peace in this increasingly interdependent world must be welcomed.

The war in Ukraine, the conflicts and terrorism in Africa, and the blood-letting in Myanmar, have all caused Pope Francis such sadness and concern for the people affected that his appeal to the United Nations' Security Council last month is worthy of close scrutiny.

Francis called on the 15 members of the Council, which focuses on preserving peace and world security, to live up to the requirements that make it possible for it to fulfil its mission:

I want to offer you a heartfelt invitation to face our common problems, setting aside ideologies and narrow visions, partisan ideas and interests, and to cultivate a single purpose: to work for the good of all humanity. 

All the busy international activity of the modern era has resulted instead in "a famine of fraternity":

[Instead,] we are suffering from a famine of fraternity, which arises from the many situations of injustice, poverty and inequality and also from the lack of a culture of solidarity. 

New ideologies heighten the likelihood of strife 

To emphasise how technologically developed socieites can also be humanly diminished Francis recalls his message for the World Day of Peace, 1 January 2014, where he said:  

New ideologies, characterized by widespread individualism, egocentrism and materialistic consumerism, weaken social bonds, fueling that ‘throwaway’ mentality, which leads to contempt for and abandonment of, the weakest and those considered ‘useless’.  In this way human coexistence increasingly tends to resemble a mere do ut des [contract of giving and receiving] which is both pragmatic and selfish.

 Previous hopes for stability in regional and global affairs are in tatters:

With the founding of the United Nations, it seemed that the world had learned, after two terrible world wars, to move towards a more stable peace, to become, at last, a family of nations.  It seems, though, that we are going backwards in history, with the rise of myopic, extremist, resentful and aggressive nationalisms that have kindled conflicts which are not only anachronistic and outdated, but even more violent.

Peace is God’s dream for humanity, Francis says. He goes on:

It takes more courage to renounce easy profits for the sake of keeping peace than to sell ever more sophisticated and powerful weapons.  It takes more courage to seek peace than to wage war.  It takes more courage to promote encounter than confrontation, to sit at the negotiating table than to continue hostilities. 

War is not a just act 

Then he comes to the heart of his statement ‒ that war is not a just act, and an aggressive form of  nationalism cannot be condoned: 

In order to make peace a reality, we must move away from the logic of the legitimacy of war: if this were valid in earlier times, when wars were more limited in scope, in our own day, with nuclear weapons and those of mass destruction, the battlefield has become practically unlimited, and the effects potentially catastrophic.  The time has come to say an emphatic “no” to war, to state that wars are not just, but only peace is just: a stable and lasting peace, built not on the precarious balance of deterrence, but on the fraternity that unites us.

On this, one commentator, stresses the importance of Francis' statement:  

With these words of the Supreme Pontiff, it can be credibly argued that the Catholic Church is being directed to understand that the “just-war theory” – if it ever had any moral legitimacy, and that’s a big “if” – cannot in anyway claim today that it morally reflects Gospel-based truth. If we take this teaching by Pope Francis seriously – and indeed we should – this is monumental! It deserves serious study, discussion and prayer in our churches, schools, universities, corporations and halls of government

Francis' statement is also highly significant, the above commentator says, as he uses inspiring and prophetic language in attempting to move us to a morally higher way of thinking and acting. Francis declares:

Indeed, we are all brothers and sisters, journeying on the same earth, dwelling in a single common home, and we cannot darken the heaven under which we live with the clouds of nationalisms.  Where will we end up if everyone thinks only of themselves?  So those who strive to build peace must promote fraternity. 

Building peace is a craft that requires passion and patience, experience and farsightedness, tenacity and dedication, dialogue and diplomacy.  And listening as well: listening to the cries of those who are suffering because of wars, especially children.  Their tear-stained eyes judge us: the future we prepare for them will be the court for our present choices.

Words from Pope Paul VI in 1973 provide the basis of the peace Francis seeks:

Peace must be based on reason, not passion; magnanimous, not selfish.  Peace must be not inert and passive, but dynamic, active and progressive according as the just demands of the declared and equitable rights of man require new and better expressions of peace. Peace must not be weak, inefficient and servile, but strong in the moral reasons that justify it and in the solid support of the nations that must uphold it. 

In a similiar line of thought Francis gives his conclusion, quoting again from his 2014 World Day of Peace message:

I want to emphasize again a word that I like to repeat, for I consider it decisive: fraternity.  Fraternity cannot remain an abstract idea, but must become a real point of departure: indeed, it is “an essential dimension of man, who is a relational being.  A lively awareness of this relationality leads us to see and treat each person as a true sister and brother; without it, it becomes impossible to build a just society, a solid and lasting peace.”

In highly critical language to weapon producing corporations, and thus to the individuals who comprise them, and those who hold stock in them, Francis says:

From the economic point of view, war is often more enticing than peace, inasmuch as it promotes profit, but always for a few and at the expense of the wellbeing of entire populations. The money earned from arms sales is thus money soiled with innocent blood.

Ukraine war sets challenge for all

On the basis of fraternity, then, Western powers stand convicted in the instance of the Ukraine war because of an unwillingness to abide by an earlier Minsk agreement, and a gung ho attitude that aggressive promotion in the former Soviet Bloc as elsewhere of its liberal "progressivism" should not be tempered even in light of the serious antipathy it evokes from the Russian side.  

To end, Francis sets out the task of each of us in laying the groundwork for peace. He states in his 2020 encyclical on fraternity Fratelli tutti:

Once more we are being reminded that “each new generation must take up the struggles and attainments of past generations, while setting its sights even higher. This is the path. Goodness, together with love, justice and solidarity, are not achieved once and for all; they have to be realized each day. It is not possible to settle for what was achieved in the past and complacently enjoy it, as if we could somehow disregard the fact that many of our brothers and sisters still endure situations that cry out for our attention”.

Therefore, a cooperative search for truth, an openness to the other, even when it means sacrifice of our own interests, a wish to love and share, and taking an option for the poor are among the attritributes that will lead us to friendship and away from war, even in the midst of stressful situations. These are the qualities that we must also seek in our leaders.

Peacemaking can be learned, as history shows us, for example with the end of the inter-family strife of the medieval era that Dante was himself part of. And that is stance we have to espouse as we reject the concept of the legitimacy of war as a whole.

Ω Watch Francis in a powerful video on this issue here. 

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