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On October 27, 2026, Pope Leo XIV sent a video message to religious leaders gathered in Assisi, Italy, for the international meeting “Unarmed and Disarming Peace.” The gathering marked the fortieth anniversary of the historic interreligious prayer for peace convened there by Pope St. John Paul II on October 27, 1986. Leo XIV had planned to attend in person but was recovering from thoracic surgery performed on October 13 and could not travel. In the message he declared, in words reported consistently across Vatican sources and major news outlets: “War can never be waged in the name of God. For us believers, ‘to fight in the name of religion means attacking religion itself.’ There is no such thing as a holy war: only peace is holy.”
He continued: “We must rebuild peace everywhere, not prepare for more wars.” He spoke of a “troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics” and a “culture of power,” urging participants to cultivate the “spirit of Assisi”—rejection of the religious justification of war, mediation, dialogue, contemplative reflection, and creative action for peace. He quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the paradox of arms accumulation as a supposed path to peace, noting that this betrays the memory of the twentieth century’s slaughter. The remarks echoed language from his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (May 2026), in which he had written that fighting in the name of religion means attacking religion itself, and that the traditional just-war theory, “which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated,” while still affirming “the right to self-defense in the strictest sense.”
These statements were not a novel claim that “war is holy,” nor a reversal of Church teaching. They were a pointed rejection of any claim that war itself is holy or can be waged in God’s name. The context included ongoing conflicts in which religious language has been invoked—most notably the Russian Orthodox Church’s description of the invasion of Ukraine as a “holy war,” along with other religiously framed justifications in the Middle East and elsewhere. Leo XIV named no specific country, but the rebuke was clear.
What the Catholic Church Teaches
The Church’s authoritative teaching on war and peace is found principally in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (especially paragraphs 2307–2317), drawing on Sacred Scripture, the tradition of the Fathers and Doctors, the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes, and subsequent papal teaching.
CCC 2307 states that the fifth commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church “insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.” All citizens and governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war (2308). Yet, “as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.”
The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force (the traditional elements of the “just war” doctrine) must be met simultaneously (2309):
- The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain.
- All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective.
- There must be serious prospects of success.
- The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
Evaluation of these conditions belongs to the prudential judgment of those responsible for the common good. Even when war has broken out, moral law remains binding: non-combatants, the wounded, and prisoners must be respected; indiscriminate destruction is condemned; and orders to commit atrocities may not be obeyed (2312–2314). Peace is not merely the absence of war but “the work of justice and the effect of charity” (2304). The Church’s constant prayer and action aim at the conversion of swords into plowshares.
This framework is not a permission slip. It is a stringent set of restraints grounded in natural law and the Gospel command to love one’s neighbor (and even one’s enemy). War is never presented as holy, good in itself, or an ordinary instrument of policy. It is at best a tragic last resort for the protection of the innocent and the restoration of a just order.
Holy Wars in History and Context
The phrase “holy war” has a long and bloody history across cultures. In the Hebrew Scriptures, certain wars of conquest or defense are described as commanded by God (for example, elements of the settlement of the land in Joshua). Medieval Christian writers sometimes invoked these texts. In Islamic tradition, jihad can carry martial meanings of struggle in the path of God. In medieval and early modern Europe, the Crusades (beginning with Pope Urban II’s call in 1095) were frequently framed as divinely willed—“Deus vult” (“God wills it”)—with promises of spiritual rewards. Some later campaigns against heresy or for the reconquest of territory received similar sacral language. Other examples appear in the Wars of Religion, certain colonial enterprises, and modern conflicts in which political or ethnic aims are cloaked in religious rhetoric.
Such wars were typically justified not primarily by the limited criteria of natural-law justice (self-defense against lasting, grave aggression, proportionality, etc.), but by the claim that the conflict itself advanced God’s will, protected the faith, recovered holy places, or punished religious error. Participants often expected spiritual merit or believed the enemy to be under divine judgment in a way that relaxed ordinary moral restraints. The results frequently included massacres, forced conversions, and the subordination of moral reasoning to religious zeal.
Catholic tradition has long distinguished these from the more restrained just-war reasoning developed by Christian thinkers precisely to limit violence. While some medieval popes and theologians endorsed crusading under religious banners, the systematic moral theology of Augustine and Aquinas did not treat war as holy. Later Catholic teaching, especially after the experience of modern total war and nuclear weapons, has grown even more cautious about any sacralization of conflict.
The Difference Between Holy War and Just War
The two concepts are not the same, and conflating them produces serious confusion.
A holy war is one claimed to be waged in the name of God or religion, often as a positive religious duty or act of worship. Its primary justification is religious: the advancement of faith, the recovery of sacred territory, the punishment of unbelief, or obedience to a perceived divine command. It tends to sacralize the violence itself—“God is on our side,” “this conflict is holy.” Moral constraints can be subordinated or dissolved because the cause is presented as transcendent. Historical examples include certain Crusades, some interpretations of jihad, and modern appeals that treat a war as a sacred struggle against cosmic evil.
A just war, by contrast, is a limited, conditional moral permission under natural law for legitimate authority to use proportionate force as a last resort against lasting, grave injustice (typically aggressive attack or comparable wrong), with the intention of restoring peace and justice rather than domination, revenge, or religious expansion. The war itself is never called holy. It is a regrettable necessity, always accompanied by evil, and subject to strict limits both in the decision to fight (jus ad bellum) and in the conduct of fighting (jus in bello). Right intention requires that the goal be the advancement of good or the avoidance of evil—securing peace, not cruelty or lust for power. Augustine emphasized that true servants of God wage war with a peacemaker’s spirit. Aquinas systematized the core conditions: legitimate sovereign authority, just cause (the enemy’s fault or wrong), and right intention.
Just-war reasoning does not claim that God commands or blesses the war as an intrinsically holy act. It asks whether, given the reality of human sin and the absence of a perfect international authority, force may sometimes be used to protect the innocent and restrain greater evil. Even then, the Church insists that peace efforts must first have failed, that the good achieved must outweigh the evils caused, and that civilians must be protected. Modern weapons and the ease with which “just war” language is abused have led recent popes, including Francis and Leo XIV, to stress how rarely (if ever) the full criteria can be met in contemporary conditions, while still preserving the narrow right of strict self-defense.
Why Pope Leo XIV Does Not Contradict Church Teaching, Augustine, or Aquinas
Leo XIV’s Assisi message rejects the idea that any war is holy or may be fought in God’s name. This is fully consistent with the tradition. Augustine never taught that war is holy. He taught that peace is the proper end of human society, that war is a tragic consequence of sin, and that it may sometimes be undertaken by legitimate authority to correct wrongs and restore order—always with the inner disposition of charity and the aim of peace. In Contra Faustum and elsewhere he condemns cruelty, vengeance, and the lust of power even in otherwise legitimate conflicts. Aquinas, in Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 40, asks whether it is always sinful to wage war and answers that it is not, provided the three conditions are met. He quotes Augustine to the effect that true religion regards as peaceful those wars waged to secure peace, punish evil-doers, and uplift the good—not for aggrandizement or cruelty. Neither thinker sacralizes the act of war itself.
The Catechism and the broader magisterium continue this line: war is to be avoided; it is never a positive good; peace is the goal; legitimate defense remains possible under rigorous conditions. Leo XIV’s insistence that “only peace is holy” and that fighting in the name of religion attacks religion itself simply restates this priority. His observation in Magnifica Humanitas that just-war theory has often been misused to justify any war, and that modern technology makes its application more problematic, is a prudential judgment about contemporary circumstances, not a denial of the underlying principles of legitimate authority, just cause, right intention, or the right of self-defense. He explicitly preserves the latter “in the strictest sense.” Earlier popes (John XXIII in Pacem in Terris, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis in Fratelli Tutti) likewise stressed the extreme difficulty of meeting just-war criteria in an age of total war and weapons of mass destruction.
Critics who claim Leo XIV has abandoned Augustine or Aquinas typically confuse the rejection of “holy war” rhetoric with a rejection of any moral evaluation of the use of force. The two are distinct. The Pope is condemning the instrumentalization of religion to bless or mandate violence—the very thing just-war reasoning was designed to restrain. Historical holy wars and modern religious justifications often fail the just-war tests of last resort, proportionality, discrimination, and right intention precisely because they elevate religious or ideological aims above ordinary justice.
In short, Pope Leo XIV’s words in the Assisi video message affirm a long-standing Catholic conviction: peace is the holy and proper end of human life and of nations; war is never holy; it may, under the rarest and most carefully limited conditions, be a tragic necessity of justice, but it must never be waged in the name of God. That teaching is continuous with the Catechism, with the Doctors of the Church, and with the Church’s repeated calls to prefer dialogue, diplomacy, and prayer over the culture of power.
References
- Pope Leo XIV, video message to the International Meeting for Peace, Assisi, 27 October 2026 (as reported by Vatican News, EWTN, ANSA, Rome Reports, and others).
- Pope Leo XIV, encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (15/25 May 2026), especially paragraphs on war, AI, and just-war theory.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2302–2317.
- St. Augustine, Contra Faustum XXII; letters on war and peace; City of God.
- St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 40.
- Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 77–82.
- Pope St. John Paul II, various addresses on the Spirit of Assisi (1986 onward).
- Secondary discussions: Word on Fire analyses of just-war doctrine and Magnifica Humanitas; USCCB resources on just-war doctrine; historical treatments of Crusades and holy-war rhetoric.
