Nothing Like a Just War

The world is in the grip of war. It has never been so bad. Thousands have already been killed, and millions more have been affected all over the world. The poor and the marginalised, the small farmer and the casual labourer, the slum-dweller and those who live on the peripheries of society, are the worst affected. Prices have sky-rocketed; the common person in India is not even able to buy a cooking gas cylinder to meet their daily needs. A meme going viral shows a group of jungle animals representing different species gazing at the skyline with planes above bombing buildings; there are flames and plumes of black smoke. The animals say to each other, “They have spent billions to explore life on ‘Mars’ and are spending trillions for destroying ‘life on earth’”. Seated beside these animals are two apparently ‘Martian’ looking creatures; one of them quips, “humans are really stupid!” The meme says it all!

Ever since Israel and the United States attacked Iran on 28 February, Pope Leo XIV has not missed an opportunity to condemn the war, to ask for an immediate cessation of hostilities and to ask all concerned to embrace the road to peace. In his Angelus message, in the Vatican, on Sunday, March 15, he said, “In the name of the Christians of the Middle East and of all women and men of goodwill: Cease the fire! Let paths of dialogue be reopened! Violence can never lead to the justice, stability and peace that people are awaiting. Thousands of innocent people have been killed, and many others have been forced to abandon their homes. I renew my prayerful closeness to all those who have lost their loved ones in the attacks that have struck schools, hospitals, and residential areas”. On  13 March, in his address to the participants in the course on the internal forum promoted by the Apostolic Penitentiary his words were stronger, “Do those Christians who bear grave responsibility in armed conflicts have the humility and courage to make a serious examination of conscience and to go to confession?”

Our late Pope Francis had also taken a strong stand against war. In his path-breaking Encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti’, he devoted an entire section titled ‘The injustice of war’ (#256-262) where he states: “Since conditions that favour the outbreak of wars are once again increasing, I can only reiterate that “war is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment. We can no longer think of war as a solution,… it is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a “just war”. Never again war! Every war leaves our world worse than it was before.”

Church teaching is clear: “War is wrong...there is nothing like a just war.” The war of today cannot be justified on any grounds. What then is the role of Religious of India in the wake of the war that engulfs us all? We need to come out and join with other women and men of goodwill to protest it with an unequivocal “NO to War”.

Yes, we should also pray. Mother Teresa made it mandatory for her Missionaries of Charity to say the prayer of St Francis of Assisi daily, to internalise and actualise it. In this ‘Year of St Francis’, we are called to do likewise: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace...Where there is hatred, let me bring love.”

(Fr Cedric Prakash SJ is a renowned human rights, reconciliation and peace activist. He is also a prolific writer. Contact cedricprakash@gmail.com)

Blurb

“Cease the fire! Let paths of dialogue be reopened! Violence can never lead to the justice, stability and peace that people are awaiting” – Pope Leo XIV