It is in a spirit of hope that we cannot allow words like “just” to be mobilized to justify what is unjust, cruel and devastating.
I share the statement prepared by the "Justice and Peace Commission of the Holy
Land" as few times we have the chance to hear these voices in any
social or printed media.
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Justice and Peace Commission of the Holy Land (30.6.2024)
The words we use matter, especially in a time of war. That is why, as the war in Gaza drags on and the death toll rises, those held hostage languish in captivity and those held without trial increase in number, we feel the need to speak out against the misuse of a term used in Catholic doctrine. That term is “just war”, a concept developed in pre-Christian antiquity, that, to our alarm as Christians, is increasingly being weaponized to justify the ongoing violence in Gaza.
Though nonviolence lies at the heart of our Christian faith, over centuries, Catholic thinkers have tried to formulate the conditions under which war is not only inevitable but also just. As a result, going as far back as Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Church has adopted the concept of “just war”. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 2309), outlines the criteria for a just war, noting that “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; and the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.”
Since the horrific attacks on October 7 on military installations, residential areas and a music festival in southern Israel by Hamas and other militants and the catastrophic war waged in response by Israel, Catholic leaders, beginning with Pope Francis, have continuously called for an immediate ceasefire and a release of hostages. Catholic moral theologians around the world have also outlined how neither the attacks by Hamas on October 7 nor Israel’s devastating war in response satisfy the criteria for “just war” according to Catholic doctrine. It is not our place here to repeat arguments that have already been made—among others, that negotiations have repeatedly not been exhausted before the use of force, and that Israel’s lack of stated objectives makes “serious prospects of success” impossible to measure. Most importantly, just wars must clearly differentiate between civilians and combatants, a principle that has been ignored in this war by both sides with tragic results. Just wars must also employ a proportionate use of force, which cannot easily be said of a war in which the Palestinian death toll is tens of thousands of people higher than that of Israel, and one in which a clear majority of the Palestinian casualties have been women and children.
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