First, these remarks were made at an Angelus (14 January 2024) and so this is not an act of the Magisterium. All are free to disagree. But is he wrong? And if so, is it heresy?

Pope Francis: “And let us not forget those who suffer the cruelty of war in so many parts of the world, especially in Ukraine, Palestine and Israel. At the beginning of the year, we exchanged wishes of peace, but weapons continue to kill and destroy. Let us pray that those who have power over these conflicts reflect on the fact that war is not the way to resolve them, because it sows death among civilians and destroys cities and infrastructure. In other words, today war is in itself a crime against humanity. Let us not forget this: war is in itself a crime against humanity. Peoples need peace! The world needs peace! I heard, a few minutes ago, on the programme “A Sua Immagine”, Father Faltas, vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem: he spoke about educating for peace. We must educate for peace. We can see that we – humanity as a whole – are not yet educated enough to stop all war. Let us always pray for this grace: to educate for peace.” [Angelus, 14 Jan 2024]

In a previous talk, Pope Francis had already said that all wars are unjust. How does this square with “just war theory”? A hypothetical Just War occurs when one nation, the aggressor, unjustly attacks another nation, and the latter justly defends itself. The overall war occurs due to the very grave injustice by the attacking nations. So even a theoretical Just War depends upon gravely unjust actions by the aggressor nation. So the Pope is correct that all wars are unjust, in the sense that if both sides at least avoided gravely immoral acts, the war would not occur.

And that is in the theoretical case, proposing that the defending nation should and does avoid all gravely unjust actions. What happens in real wars is that there are gravely unjust actions on both sides. Even when a nation is justly defending itself, all actions are not permitted; some acts in war would still be gravely immoral. And it is to be observed that a Just War in real situations often involves some grave injustices even on the part of the nation justly defending itself.

Now in his most recent remarks, Pope Francis says this: “because it sows death among civilians and destroys cities and infrastructure. In other words, today war is in itself a crime against humanity. Let us not forget this: war is in itself a crime against humanity.”

First, Pope Francis is correct that modern-day wars tend to have very high rates of civilian deaths. Second, the destruction of cities and infrastructure commonly occurs, as cities are easier to defend and so troops ensconce themselves in cities, to defend, and attacking troops try to capture cities. Many civilian deaths result. Destruction of infrastructure has gravely harmful effects on civilians, and so can be immoral, depending on the circumstances and the anticipated harm.

Third, just as in the previous case, in which every Just War certainly involves grave injustice by the attacking nation, every war in modern times at least, involves grave injustices against very many civilians by the attacking nation, and also often by the defending nations. Then the deaths of troops cannot be ignored. The attacking nation anticipates many deaths of its own troops, making the decision by the aggressor nation gravely immoral. Some actions by the defending nation might not be moral, such as continuing a war with no reasonable chance of success (a criterion in just war theory), or such as using troops in a manner that causes high casualty rates.

So the aggressor nation is committing a crime against humanity, when the war “sows death among civilians and destroys cities and infrastructure” as is the case for major wars today. A limited military action in defense of a nation would not qualify as a crime against humanity. And the decision of a nation to go to war to defend itself, so as to avoid a greater harm in the reasonably anticipated circumstances, is just and not a crime against humanity. However, we know that as wars occur today, in general, there certainly are crimes against humanity, in the unjust attack, in the many deaths of civilians (which would be avoided if the aggressor nation did not attack), and in some of the gravely immoral decisions by the defending nation.

Pope Francis did not say that all war is always a crime against humanity, or that nations cannot justly defend themselves. He specified war as it generally occurs today, particularly when many civilians are killed and cities are destroyed.

Ronald L Conte Jr