Pope upholds use of armed forces for legitimate defense

February 10, 2025

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CWN Editor's Note: In his February 9 Angelus address, Pope Francis upheld the moral legitimacy of the use of armed forces for defense, in a statement that struck a different tone from previous papal statements questioning the concept of just war.

Addressing participants in the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security Forces, he said:

The Second Vatican Council says: “Those too who devote themselves to the military service of their country should regard themselves as the agents of security and freedom of peoples.” This armed service is to be exercised only for legitimate defense, never to impose dominion over other nations, always observing the international conventions on matters of conflict, and before that, in sacred respect for life and creation.

Pope Francis cited Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (n. 79).

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• Posted by: feedback - Today 9:12 AM ET USA

  Francis is pretty consistent in his lack of consistency. I wish he made references to the actual teachings of the Church more often; let that be the Second Vatican Council, or any other Council, or any Pope other than himself.