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‘Popesplaining’ Vance out of depth in argument over whether Iran is a just war
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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Theologian here, although not Catholic.
We could see this debate as the Catholic church being more progressive than the US and in part it's true. But it's a quite conservative view within the Catholic tradition: in the beginning of Christianity, all violence were deemed unjust, and people preferred to die than to be violent. Then Augustine and others theorized the just war, which is the base of the international war law. But in the 20^th century, the Catholic church evolved on the subject, stating again that all war were unjust:
The current version of The Catechism of the Catholic Church never use the expression “just war”, and justifies only violence in case of defense.
So the fact that the pope is arguing about just war is not the church being progressive, but being in fact fusty according to its own tradition. I think the definition the pope has to just war is not the Augustinian one, but one that limit war to defense, so the difference between him and Francis on the ideas is in fact non-existent, but the usage of the expression is by itself a defeat.
I would love to have a belief that there is no just war but then I just think of WW2
Maybe it's wouldn't be Just, but it's not like there was any other option. You wouldn't be able to talk Hitler out of invading and taking over Europe.
Definitely not the case with Iran though, that was America being the aggressor like Hitler was.
WW2 wasn't just, but that doesn't mean it's not just to defend yourself or others.
Starting a war is never just. Participating might be just, but it doesn't make the war just.