War, Just and Unjust

Roger I & Robert Guiscard Receive the Keys to Palermo [from Arab Muslims] by Guiseppe Patania,1830 [Palazzo dei Normanni, Palermo, Sicily]

By Robert Royal on Monday, March 2, 2026

Nuclear weapons, like other modern technological developments, have placed great strains on traditional moral principles. Just as modern medicine has changed our appreciation of the beginning and end of human life, the tremendous destructive power of modern weapons, nuclear and not, has made careful thought about war not only urgent, but – to use the fashionable term – existential.

That’s probably the main reason why the Vatican has seemed quasi-pacifist in recent decades. But the Church has a well-developed set of criteria about just and unjust uses of force. Indeed, in the past, it even – rightly – called for crusades. (I’ll explain another time.) But those criteria – still valid in themselves – need further elaboration to confront the conditions in which we find ourselves.

I have immediate family members who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, been active in U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East, and worked in the Pentagon managing defense preparedness. Some of my grandchildren have been forced into air-raid shelters in Jerusalem; the others may someday face terrorism at home or, themselves, have to take part in foreign wars. Millions of Americans – and not only Americans – have similar stories. And unless we keep the human costs of warfare front and center in our minds, we may be tempted to take just-war theory as merely a political or intellectual exercise.

That said, there are, of course, things worth dying for – and, regrettably, things worth killing for. That’s precisely why just-war theory, a tradition of moral reflection that began in the ancient world, was developed – notably by Augustine and Aquinas, and is the common heritage of most modern militaries. Some of the best-informed students I’ve ever had on just war over the years learned that tradition during U.S. military training. Academic types often scoff at this, but it’s true.

A good summary of just-war principles can be found here. (Our friend Phil Lawler has been re-examining them in strict fidelity to the Catholic tradition online here). But I want to look closely at just a few of them here to highlight some special circumstances that they now face.

I’m not sure whether the U.S. attack on Iran these past few days is justified. A lot of people already claim to know, one way or the other. But I’ve seen enough similar situations to be willing to suspend judgment until we know more. (I’ve misjudged in the past.) Still, I am sure that the way to decide should be on Catholic just-war grounds, not just the wearying and utterly predictable pro- and anti-Trump tug-of-war.

The first criterion is last resort. Resort to arms is a life-and-death matter. It should only be done when other means of addressing a threat have failed. But who decides when all reasonable alternatives have been exhausted? You can always claim that something else might be pursued. In the meantime, great evils may spread:

                                       Nature’s polluted,
There’s man in every secret corner of her
Doing damned, wicked deeds.

More: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2026/03/02/war-just-and-unjust/

Blessed Leonella Sgorbati, pray for us.

Shot four times in Mogadishu, she did not cry out in rage. With her final breath she spoke three times, quietly and deliberately, “I forgive.”

This was Blessed Leonella Sgorbati, an Italian Consolata Missionary Sister who gave her life not in theory but in long fidelity. For decades she served in Africa as a nurse and midwife, forming local healthcare workers, strengthening fragile systems, and standing beside mothers and children whose lives were precarious and easily forgotten. Her vocation was not dramatic. It was patient, incarnational, and deeply Catholic.

In 2006 she returned to Mogadishu, reopening a hospital amid violence and instability. She chose presence over safety, service over retreat. On 17 September that year, extremists ambushed her outside the hospital gates. Gravely wounded, she managed to stagger back inside. There, instead of denunciation, she uttered a trinitarian cadence of mercy: “I forgive… I forgive… I forgive.” These were her last words on earth.

Her death was not an accident of geopolitics but a participation in the logic of the Gospel. The Church recognised this when Pope Francis confirmed her martyrdom and she was beatified in 2018. In her we see that forgiveness is not sentimental weakness but metaphysical strength. It is the refusal to allow evil the final word. It is an assertion that grace is more real than violence.

In an age that confuses vengeance with justice and outrage with courage, Blessed Leonella offers a more demanding anthropology. The human person, even when violated, retains the capacity to choose mercy. Forgiveness does not deny evil. It overcomes it.

If faith is to be credible, it must be visible at the hour of trial. Her witness challenges us. Whom do we still refuse to forgive. Where do we allow resentment to calcify into identity.

Blessed Leonella Sgorbati, pray for us. Teach us that the Gospel is strongest not when it dominates, but when it forgives.

Mark Lambert @sitsio

BREAKING: Cardinal 'brought mobile phone into top-secret conclave'

The 133 cardinal-electors enter the Sistine Chapel at the start of the conclave last May - Vatican Pool

A cardinal brought a mobile phone inside the top-secret conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV last year in a massive security breach, according to a new book.

The papal conclave, an 800-year-old selection process held at the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, is one of the world’s most mysterious and secretive traditions.

Vatican Church officials are cut off from the outside world and forced to surrender phones for the duration of the vote, which can last anywhere from a few days to years.

But May’s proceedings were interrupted when an elderly cardinal was found with the device in his pocket, according to the book titled The Election of Pope Leo XIV.

Gerard O’Connell, veteran Vatican correspondent, who wrote the book alongside Elisabetta Piqué, told The Telegraph: “He was disoriented and distressed. He was as surprised as everyone else was.”

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cardinal-brought-mobile-phone-into-top-secret-conclave/ar-AA1XjITB?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=69a5ae81f585454a9dbadcb7ae1c5e44&ei=9

Leo XIV To Schneider: "Young People Told Me They Converted Thanks to the Traditional Latin Mass"

Bishop Athanasius Schneider told Robert Moynihan on February 16 about the 30 minutes private audience with Pope Leo XIV on December 18.

He described the tone as open and cordial: “The Pope was very kind, attentively listening to me, very, very fraternal and simple.”

Two drafts for Leo XIV

Bishop Schneider handed Pope Leo XIV two drafts during the audience.

1) A solemn Profession of Faith

He proposed a solemn Profession of Faith, modeled on Paul VI’s 1968 Credo of the People of God. Schneider emphasized that such a text would need concrete implementation, not merely publication.

2) A universal legal settlement for the Roman Rite

Monsignor Schneider urged Leo XIV to grant equal standing to the Roman Rite and to the Novus Ordo: “I came to ask you for the liturgical peace in the Church… to grant the same rights, the same dignity to the traditional form of the Roman Rite and the Novus Ordo, and to let them peacefully coexist.”

Monsignor Schneider advised against another motu proprio “ping-pong.” Instead, he suggested a more solemn juridical act - such as an Apostolic Constitution - as a stable settlement.

He also mentioned that the “one rite = unity” rationale associated with Traditionis custodes is historically false and even contradicted by current approved diversity within the Roman Rite. As examples, he referenced the Anglican Ordinariate and the Zaire rite.

“Pax Liturgica Leonina”

Bishop Schneider told Leo XIV that establishing liturgical peace could define his legacy: “When you will do this, then it will go down in history as a so-called Pax Liturgica Leonina.”

Monsignor Schneider mentioned that Leo XIV was "smiling when I said this".

The Bishop added: “He himself said that he had met young people — and I was surprised to hear this from his own lips — who told him that their conversion to God had come through the Traditional Latin Mass.”

The “Five Wounds”

Bishop Schneider also offered Leo XIV a diagnosis of the present crisis by listing five “wounds” of the Church:

1. - Doctrinal confusion (with the Profession of Faith as remedy).

2. - Liturgical anarchy and a “war” against the Mass in the Roman rite (peaceful coexistence as remedy).

3. - Unworthy, worldly bishops and cardinals aligned with secular agendas.

4. - Deficient priestly formation in seminaries (doctrine, morals, liturgy).

5. - Harm to cloistered contemplative life, referencing Cor Orans.

Modernist Prelates Promoted to Strategic Dioceses

On episcopal appointments, Schneider told the Pope: “Holy Father, the third wound in the Church is the wound of unworthy, worldly bishops and cardinals who are the new Sadducees of today, who collaborate with the agenda of the political elites, of the ideological elites of this world.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, he also described appointments as a “great wound” of the Church, criticizing the promotion of prelates known for modernist or liberal tendencies to “strategic” offices in Rome and dioceses.

Bishop Schneider also spoke about the Vatican dialogue with the Priestly Fraternity of St Pius X. This video sequence is here