Magnificus Leo

An American pope has emerged as the most compelling voice against America’s wars 

War is never blessed by God. Pope Leo XIV is really on a roll, repeating this message again and again, in case people miss it at first, which they tend to do. Why is it so hard to take in? Not because it’s super complicated. But because we have become so used to hearing the opposite. Chaplains of different denominations, generals, and politicians citing sacred cause for the battle they’ve decided to fight, is the more familiar soundtrack. Iran war is a special case only because three languages of divine sanction are speaking here, each convinced that God is on its side. As Leo explained in his inaugural encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, this is the Babel syndrome. It negates synodality (walking together), fraternity, humanity itself. 

Leo’s theological vision is revolting to US’s dominant Christian right. The cardinals who elected history’s first American pope may well have counted on this: A strong moral voice to counterbalance aggressive Bible thumping by Republicans who love a war. A big gap between a tradition’s deepest peaceable teachings and the militaristic ideologies that get built on top of it, is neither new nor unique to Christianity. Bhagwad Gita has taught nonattachment to many, as to Gandhi, but has also been quoted to justify violence. Zen itself got folded into the Japanese imperialist war machine. What’s new, though, is unprecedented technological power, which can wreak dehumanisation at horrific pace and scale. Leo thinks it’s this nightmare that’s drawing us all towards certain artworks, like Guernica and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. They’re telling us to pause, really look at war’s wreckage, and reach for peace instead. 

At a Pentagon prayer service, evangelist Franklin Graham, speaking at Hegseth’s invitation, asked the assembled troops: “Did you know that God also hates? Do you know that God also is a god of war?” It’s painful irony how much this echoes the Ayatollahs’ framing of things. And the settler ideology of Israel sounds similar too. Yes, such interpretations have always existed. In modern times, they’ve amounted to “third world war fought piecemeal”, increasingly reducing peace to “a fragile interval between conflicts”. But the threat of total devastation is now exponentially greater than ever. This is what makes the “just war” theory, abused to justify every kind of war, decidedly “outdated”. Humanity cannot afford it anymore. Leo’s message bears repeating by religious leaders across the earth. That God does not take any sides in war. God is incarnate in every person, different religions, after all, all say. That’s the magnificence of humanity, magnifica humanitas.

END OF ARTICLE