In the early days of the Church the Christians (Catholics) were total pacifists. Martyrdom was thought to be an ultimate goal guaranteeing eternal salvation. It becam so extreme that martyrdom qua martyrdom was banned. It became a sort of suicide, facilitated by Rome.
Then in the second century as Christians multiplied, Rome needed troops, they had not yet convinced those they conquered to join in and thus Christians became Roman soldiers, and the view of total pacifism disappeared. The ultimate test was with Constantine, who made Christianity the religion of the land. It would be honorable for Christians to join in with Constantine and his defense of the Empire.
As tribes descended upon the Empire, defense and war was pandemic. As Rome collapsed, Christianity spread to the invaders. The Merovingians became Christian and from then until the French Revolution France was both Christian and war like.
The construct of Just War was formalized by Aquinas, and even supported by Augustine.
In today's world where the United States has been attacked, threatened and overtly called out for total annihilation by nuclear weapons, defense of its population is a sine qua non.
Yet along come quasi first century Christians as in the NY Times. They note:
It isn’t every day that a pope calls for an overhaul of a more than 1,000-year-old teaching of the Catholic Church, but that’s exactly what Pope Leo XIV did last month. In his inaugural encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” which was mainly an exploration of how to protect human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence, Leo devoted a brief but critical passage to just war theory. In a break with a foundational principle of Catholic thought on conflict, Leo called the theory “outdated” and made it clear that the teaching has been twisted to justify wars for decades, most recently the war in Iran. It is about time for the change. Just war theory holds that wars must meet strict conditions: They should be in self-defense, and only if alternatives have been exhausted; the use of force should be proportional; there should be a likelihood of success and the threat should be imminent. Since World War II at least, several popes have criticized world leaders for using the theory as a fig leaf. While Leo did not cite any specific war in the encyclical, he clearly had President Trump’s war on Iran in mind. On June 6, in remarks en route to Madrid for a visit, he was asked if a “just war” was being waged in Iran. The pontiff replied: “I believe this has already been made very clear: In Iran, the criteria for a just war are not present.” Leo wasn’t done. “The theory of the just war dates back to centuries when it was impossible to imagine the weapons and the destructive capacity available to humanity today,” he added.
As I have noted earlier, Leo appears to have a massive dislike of the current President. He also, in my opinion, has a gross lack of understanding of Church policy in this area. Perhaps martyrdom in an arena, readily done in the threatening nation discussed, would be his moral solution.
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