By: Pitamber Kaushik

On Palm Sunday, Pope Leo XIV declared that “Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” and warned that God does not hear the prayers of those whose hands are “full of blood.” His instinct was morally serious. War brutalizes, and the suffering in and around Iran is real. But as a statement of Catholic political morality, it was too sweeping, especially when heard against a regime that executes on a massive scale, crushes dissent, and has now been accused even by Gulf Arab states of posing an “existential threat” through missile and drone attacks.

The problem is not that Leo wants peace. It is that the Vatican’s own tradition has never taught that all uses of force are morally equivalent. The Catechism still recognizes “legitimate defense by military force,” and elsewhere says defense can be a “grave duty” for those responsible for others. Paul VI, no hawk, still affirmed the right of states to legitimate defence. John Paul II went further, saying nations may even have a duty to “disarm the aggressor” if all other means fail. That is not warmongering. It is the historic Catholic refusal to confuse peace with passivity.

Indeed, the papacy did far more than tolerate war. It initiated, encouraged, endorsed, and blessed it when Rome believed a just cause was at stake. At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade, and those who went east to aid embattled Christians were granted a plenary indulgence. The Crusades were, in significant part, military campaigns launched by the papacy for the recovery and defense of Christian lands and holy places. One may judge much of that legacy harshly today, and one should. But one cannot pretend it never happened, or that Rome historically held Leo’s current position that religion cannot serve as part of a moral justification for war.

The pattern did not end in the Middle Ages. Pius V organized a crusading coalition against Ottoman expansion, culminating in the Battle of Lepanto. The Church blessed banners, rallied princes, and celebrated victory. This is not to suggest that every papal war was wise, or that modern states should imitate crusading language. But these precedents conspicuously illustrate how the Vatican historically understood a basic truth that Leo’s March rhetoric obscured: a war can be tragic and still be just.

Christian scripture is also less absolutist than the Pope’s formulation. Ecclesiastes speaks of “a time for war, and a time for peace”. St. Paul says the ruler “does not bear the sword in vain”. John the Baptist did not command soldiers to resign; he told them to avoid extortion and abuse. Augustine taught that peace is the end for which war is waged, and the just-war tradition later systematized by Aquinas required rightful authority, just cause, and right intention. Catholicism has thus long distinguished between wars of vanity and wars fought reluctantly for order, defense, and the protection of the innocent.

In any war, no party is morally infallible, and allies are seldom selfless actors. Civilian harm must be scrutinized without fear or favor. But Iran is not merely another sovereign with “interests.” It is a violently-instated fundamentalist theocratic authoritarian regime that brutalizes its own people and destabilizes its neighbors. A Pope serious about justice could have declared so, while still insisting on proportionality and restraint. Instead, Leo’s language flattened the distinction between aggression and resistance. Jerusalem has better reason than Rome to remember that sometimes peace is preserved not by refusing war, but by defeating those who make it necessary.

Author Bio: Pitamber Kaushik is a journalist, columnist, writer, strategy consultant, and independent researcher currently based out of Mumbai, India. His writings have appeared in over 400 publications across 80+ nations. He has previously written in Asia Times, Brussels Times, Helsinki Times, New Humanist, International Policy Digest, The Hindu, The Telegraph, Euroscientist, and Mongabay, among numerous other publications.