Holy Fathers from Benedict XV to Leo XIV have spoken out on war and called for peace
By Deacon Bob Hunt
The purpose of this month’s column isn’t to discuss who’s right and who’s wrong, Pope Leo XIV or President Trump, on the matter of the war with Iran. Part of me wants to say, in response to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, “About time!” It’s reasonable, in my mind, that something had to be done to 1) take away Iran’s ability to continue sponsoring state terrorism against other countries and its own citizens, especially religious minorities, and 2) take away any hope of Iran eventually developing a nuclear weapon. If Trump succeeds in those two goals, I think the world owes him a debt of gratitude.
At the same time, Trump’s threat, be it real or strategic, that “a whole civilization will die tonight, unless…” is, as Pope Leo rightly pointed out, unacceptable. Destroying the lives or livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Iranians, who no more desire to live under their current government than any American would, is not the road to righteousness in international relations. To fight evil is one thing. To do so by indiscriminately destroying the lives of thousands of innocents is something else altogether. We cannot become what we oppose, even to achieve the good end of peace.
But, as I said, this column isn’t about who’s right or who’s wrong. This column is for those fellow Americans, Catholic or otherwise, who have criticized the pope for putting his two cents in when nobody asked his opinion, best summed up by the sentiment that “the pope should stay out of politics.”
News flash: Popes do not and never have stayed out of politics. Nor should they.
Our American tradition of separating church and state sometimes causes us to forget that religious leaders are citizens, too. As citizens, they have a right and a duty to keep abreast of what is going on in their country so they may make wise decisions regarding the public good. In our country, the wise decision that citizens are most supremely asked to make is the casting of our vote. How will we know how to vote if we don’t keep ourselves informed of the issues of the day?
This is true for every citizen, including religious leaders. As such, priests, ministers, rabbis, imams, etc., all have the right and the responsibility to participate in the political theater, and that includes the right and responsibility to make their own opinions known and to try to convince others of their position. So, our American pope is simply engaging in the good ol’ American tradition of keeping informed and making his opinion known. Why would we expect otherwise of any American?
But we shouldn’t expect otherwise of any pope. The pope is not merely a citizen of a country, in his case Vatican City. He is truly a citizen of the world, serving as the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics in every country, on every continent. There are 198 sovereign nations in the world. The Catholic Church has a presence in 196 of them. (OK, I know you’re wondering: Afghanistan and North Korea are the only two countries where there are no Catholics, not even a tiny few, apparently.)
The point is, what happens anywhere in the world is going to catch the eye of the pope, if only because he likely has confreres there for whom he has some level of spiritual responsibility. It’s also his duty to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Christ is the Prince of Peace.
Popes have always considered themselves as possessing the right, and sometimes the authority, to weigh in on political matters. Especially with the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the pope filled a vacuum of political leadership, necessarily becoming deeply involved in world affairs. The Catholic Church was essentially the one institution left to provide order and stability to society. The pope who was the shepherd of Europe now became its only standing prince. The rise of nationalism changed that, to be sure, but not to the point where the pope was supposed to become a silent witness to the world around him.
And, yes, while it has not always worked out well, in many cases the popes’ involvement in world affairs has worked out quite well. Popes have stopped wars, protected religious and social minorities, brought stability when secular authorities were nowhere to be found, rebuked and punished world leaders when there was no other authority around to do so, and protected the rights of the Church against kings and emperors lusting for more power, or against invaders who knew little of nor cared anything for respecting the faith of Christians.
The Catholic Church was instrumental in bringing an end to slavery in many parts of the world and still protects the rights of the unborn and victims of human trafficking. Let’s not forget, too, that the pope is the leader of a sovereign state that plays an outsized role in world politics. Many of the pope’s ambassadors have been instrumental in negotiating significant progress in peace, tempering tempers between nations, and raising a voice for the forgotten of the world.
During World War I, Pope Benedict XV was asked to bless each side during the war. He refused, insisting that both sides were Christian and had no business fighting each other. He was summarily dismissed by the belligerents. He spent the war years emptying the Vatican’s coffers providing relief to the victims of both sides.
During the rise of National Socialism in Germany in the 1930s, Pope Pius XI published scathing rebukes of the sins of racism and eugenics. During World War II, Pope Pius XII spoke out regularly against the horrors of racial superiority, putting himself in the middle of the effort to save Jews and others from Nazi atrocities. Pinchas Lapide, an Israeli diplomat, credited Pius XII with saving the lives of 860,000 Jews, and Golda Meir, later prime minister of Israel, called Pius “the lone shining light on the dark continent of Europe.”
Pope John XXIII issued Pacem in Terris, an encyclical calling for world peace that is still studied today, and Pope Paul VI issued Populorum Progressio, a call to a new, radical economic relationship between the richest and the poorest nations. Pope John Paul II called on wealthy nations to forgive the debts of poorer nations, debt that impeded them from making economic progress. He traveled the world, condemning dictatorships and, often successfully, striking the spark that brought them down, contributing significantly to the fall of communism in the east. Should these popes have stayed out of politics?
As Catholics, we are not obliged to agree with Pope Leo in his criticism of the war in Iran, and as Americans we are not obliged to disagree with him. But neither may we claim that, when he speaks on world affairs, including those impacting our own country, that he is somehow out of line. He is not. He is the Vicar of Christ, and he merits our respectful ear, whether we agree or not.
Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.
Deacon Bob Hunt is a husband, father, grandfather, and parishioner at All Saints Church in Knoxville.