When Churchmen seek to rally earthly troops

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 12, 2025

In an astonishing statement, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has declared to the whole world that “no peace treaty can be signed without truth and justice”. While I am sympathetic to Ukraine in the current war with Russia, I would prefer that Churchmen not make essentially worldly proclamations, such as: “I once again proclaim to the whole world: Ukraine stands! Ukraine fights! Ukraine prays!”

I admit that bishops are not known for rallying cries of any kind today. Too many of our Churchmen are reluctant to take a clear and public stand on any moral issue. Nonetheless, the problem is obvious. No Church leader speaks for a nation-state; indeed, no Church leader should even desire to speak for a nation-state, for to do that he must speak politically. Instead, the God-given task of a Church leader is to speak for Christ. If we grant that, then the distorted extravagance of Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk’s rallying cry becomes clear.

Can anyone—anyone at all—imagine Christ proclaiming: “My country stands! My country fights!”? This is precisely the vision of Messianic liberation which played a key role in the rejection of Christ. Again, does this sound like anything Our Lord and Savior ever said, even about Israel itself—the only nation ever created by God?

Clerical territorialism

My point is not at all to single out the Ukrainians here. They are suffering terribly now, enough so that even an excessively patriotic national identification on the part of their clergy might be excused. But an additional problem in the present instance is that these “Ukrainian Catholic” comments smack too much of the ecclesiastical territorialism characteristic of the Orthodox Churches, a territorialism which stands as one of the major worldly flaws at work in their historic separation from Rome. There is, as emphasized in the very name “Ukrainian Catholic”, not only a territorial designation but a territorial temptation when Catholics, for whatever historical reasons, think of the Church in territorial terms.

Priests and bishops are neither heads of state nor generals. Their purpose is to draw others to the very universality of Christ and to encourage them in spiritual growth and lives of charity. Humanly-speaking, of course, detachment from national/political sentiment is very difficult, but every Churchman is called to be as concerned about the souls of his nation’s enemies as he is about the souls of his nation’s citizens. I do not mean that proximity should play no role. Unlike the Pope, priests and bishops are not charged with the care of all souls everywhere; it is part of their vocation to concentrate their energies among those for whom they are directly responsible.

But it is not for priests or bishops or patriarchs (or even popes) to encourage mortal combat; their role is to proclaim the peace of Christ, and especially to minister to the souls under their jurisdictional care so that they may become more Christlike in all things. As human persons, Church leaders will (and must) make their own assessment of whether a military cause is just; and even as Churchmen they should speak clearly on the moral and spiritual dimensions both of warfare generally and of particular wars. But as Churchmen their role is to attempt to foster an authentically Christian response to any need, including any form of aggression. In other words, priests should be present with their people, attending to their spiritual needs and encouraging them to be true Christians in every circumstance. And this necessarily includes a vital recognition that even their enemies are beloved children of God.

Certainly Churchmen must “encourage” in the sense of fostering courage in response to all the demands made on their spiritual sons and daughters, whether it is to resist those demands or to accede to them. Certainly, in some instances, those circumstances may call for a generosity in risking one’s life in battle. But while any good priest will encourage prayer and virtue in soldiers, it is not a priest’s role to rally the troops for an earthly battle; nor is it a priest’s role to foster any idea that a particular nation’s soldiers are moral whereas the opposing soldiers are evil. Soldiers may be morally good or bad on all sides, with either a clear or a very distorted understanding of their nation’s cause.

Even fighting on the putatively right side is no guarantee of virtue, or of configuration to Christ. The most obvious thing about most soldiers most of the time is simply this: They have little or no practical choice about whether to go into battle and engage a particular enemy in a particular way. Indeed, if they did, there would be far fewer battles and far fewer wars.

WWJD?

Rallying the troops for an earthly battle against earthly opponents is a distortion of Christianity, and it is unfortunately a distortion that has been very common among churchmen who think of “their” church in territorial terms. It has sometimes even been a distortion encouraged by popes in their eagerness to preach crusades as the spiritual leader of predominately Catholic territories. It is one thing, of course, to offer spiritual encouragement for noble aims. And I readily grant that there can be a fine line between encouragement and a military rallying cry. But Churchmen must beware of military rallying cries—as indeed the history even of the Crusades demonstrates with heart-rending clarity. To take just the most obvious point: As ennobling as military service can be for particular persons, war itself does not typically bring out the best even in ostensibly “Christian” armies.

It may sound like a cliché, but we really must ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?” A head of state may ask himself what Jesus would do about war if He were the head of state. A head of state is not required to imitate the Savior by never fighting any more than he can imitate Him by saying, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Lk 19:40). But a Churchman does not have the same set of choices. A Catholic priest, a Catholic bishop or archbishop or patriarch, and even a pope, is configured in a special way to Christ the Priest, who sacrifices not others but Himself.

The priest must be conformed to Christ not only in virtue but in his state of life. He must forego not only worldly glory but even worldly defense. Is this not one of the main points made in the gospels of both Matthew and John?

And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” [Mt 26:51-3]

And:

Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.” [Jn 18:37]

Pilate would not admit the existence of truth. But his next words were truly prophetic: “I find no crime in him.”

These are difficult issues. But may the same be said of every man ordained to shepherd souls.