Catholic World News
Pope, in encyclical, affirms right of self-defense, says just war theory outdated
May 26, 2026
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CWN Editor's Note: In his new encyclical letter, Pope Leo XIV wrote that “today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated” (n. 192).
Pope Leo cited Pope Francis’s 2020 encyclical letter Fratelli tutti:
In recent decades, every single war has been ostensibly ‘justified.’ The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of the possibility of legitimate defense by means of military force, which involves demonstrating that certain ‘rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy’ have been met. Yet it is easy to fall into an overly broad interpretation of this potential right. In this way, some would also wrongly justify even ‘preventive’ attacks or acts of war that can hardly avoid entailing ‘evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.’The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.
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