Just war theory

Commentary: While the latest James Bond film is entertaining, be aware of how action films attempt to civilize the abominable, standardizing violence and excusing it because the future of the world is at stake.

Commentary: The nonviolent strategies being used by Ukrainians in many locations are vitally important and illustrate powerful and effective ways to defend their communities and to break the cycles of violence.

Michael Sean Winters: Russian President Vladimir Putin traffics in morally obscene lies to justify his invasion of Ukraine. Is he likely to be moved by moral concerns at all?

Perspective: We don't always hear about Catholic bishops drawing us to the active nonviolence of Jesus. Yet, a pattern is emerging, especially with Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester's recent pastoral letter urging nuclear disarmament.

In 2020, Pope Francis declared that because of modern combat's brutality, it was now "very difficult" for countries to invoke the just war theory to pursue violent conflict. One year later, some U.S. military instructors say that Francis has adjusted church teaching in a real way.

Commentary: The recent encyclical by Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, offers a critical step toward the illumination of nonviolence and a just peace moral framework, breaking down the old concept of "just war."

Commentary: An authoritative teaching document could call the entire church to Gospel nonviolence. Imagine if all 1.2 billion Catholics in the world were to practice creative, nonviolent peacemaking. A tsunami.

Pope Francis' teaching on the "just war" theory is a crucial point of reflection in today's world where the historic motives to morally justify aggression and violence are often misused, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, undersecretary for the Vatican's Migrants and Refugees Section.