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Cardinal McElroy sees peacebuilding as eclipsing just war tradition, says Catechism‘s teaching ‘unfortunate’
September 24, 2026
» Continue to this story on National Catholic Reporter
CWN Editor's Note: Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., said in a recent address that during the past six months, “tremendous progress has been made toward eclipsing the role of the just war tradition in Catholic teaching, and moving peace-building, multilateralism and active nonviolence toward the center of Catholic thought.”
“The just war framework has been distorted to become a source of justification for those inclined to go to war, rather than a constraint on war,” Cardinal McElroy said in an address to the September 9-10 meeting of Pax Christi International in Rome. “One of the accelerants for this trend is the unfortunate statement in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that the evaluation of the just war criteria belongs to those who have responsibility for the common good.”
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