In his Palm Sunday homily, Pope Leo said Jesus rejects war and that God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war. But Scripture, the Catholic Catechism, and the broader Christian tradition have long recognized the “just war” tradition, which holds that war can be morally justified under strict conditions.
This article is a lightly edited transcript of the “Here’s the Point” podcast by Ryan Helfenbein, executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center.
This past Sunday — Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026 — Pope Leo delivered his homily before tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square to open Holy Week. This is the customary practice, but what he said sparked international controversy among many when he spoke on the topic of war.
The pope declared that Jesus “rejects war” and that “no one can use Him to justify war.”
And taking Isaiah 1:15 out of its historic and even theological context and application – which referred to the sins of Judah against God — the pope told the crowd that God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war. Their hands, he said, are “full of blood.”
Now, popes addressing global conflict on Palm Sunday is nothing new. There are more accounts in history than we can probably count. What is new is a sitting pope using that moment to rhetorically dismantle 1,600 years of Christian tradition, his own Catholic tradition even, the tradition that Catholics today maintain has never changed. But it has. Neither Pope Leo nor his predecessor Pope Francis, who have more in common with progressivism than historic Roman Catholicism, have said as much to contradict official Church teachings that have been stated for well over a thousand years.
So how should we think about this?
First, Scripture does not forbid war — Scripture instructs on “just war.”
“Just war” begins not with Church philosophers — it begins with the Word of God. The Sixth Commandment does not prohibit war or even killing. It prohibits murder and the shedding of innocent blood. And in war, there are evildoers who must meet just punishment.
Yes, tragically innocent blood is also shed in war. More on that in a moment. But God said murder and killing are not the same thing. Exodus 22 says if a thief breaks in at night and is struck down, there is no guilt. Exodus 15 says it plainly: “The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.” That is not confusing a metaphor created for rhetorical effect for something else. God is actually against evil — and He punishes evil. And war has often been an instrument of God’s divine judgement against evil.
Deuteronomy 20 gives Israel a detailed framework for how war is to be conducted — honorably, justly, with terms of peace offered before battle and limits on its destruction. Defending His people was a chief duty of Israel’s kings. King David, the man after God’s own heart, was a warrior and he killed thousands. Nations throughout Scripture served as God’s instruments of justice against people whose evil had reached a point where God in His wisdom decided it was time to act. And that is not anything new if you read your Bible.
The New Testament doesn’t change this either. Romans 13 says the governing authority does not bear the sword in vain — it is God’s servant, carrying out His wrath against evil to protect the innocent. 1 Peter 2 affirms the same thing. Jesus Himself warned that wars will come, even as we await His return. In Revelation, there is a final battle in which Christ Himself returns with a sword. But this is not, again, new to anyone who is well-versed in Scripture.
Second, Christian Tradition Also Affirms Just War.
Augustine of Hippo built on this foundation in the 4th century: war as a tragic act of love — love for God and love for neighbor, waged not for revenge or conquest but to restore peace and protect the innocent. St. Thomas Aquinas systematized Augustine’s “just war” in his Summa Theologica. And he had several cases to make: Legitimate authority has to be invoked; there has to be a just cause; and there has to be a right intention to go to war.
Theologian D.A. Carson has affirmed that refusing a just war out of misplaced passivity can itself be a failure of love for neighbor and love for God. The Southern Baptist Convention here in the United States, the largest Protestant denomination in America, unanimously reaffirmed the just war tradition in 2024, both in agreement with Scripture and in agreement with Western civilization and Church history.
While many might maintain that Pope Leo did not formally revoke the Catechism’s teaching on just war, that was the same standard that was also applied to Pope Francis, who also did no wrong regarding Catholic tradition. Leo did rhetorically gut his tradition, however, in this homily.
Third, history proves that civilizations fall when just war isn’t applied.
If Charles Martel lost at the Battle of Tours in 732 A.D., Islam, which had already consumed North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, would have marched through the heart of Western Europe, taking every Christian country captive. Pope Gregory III backed the military defense of Europe at that time against jihadi Muslims, and Charles Martel won. Europe remained free from Islam.
If Jan Sobieski does not ride to relieve the Siege of Vienna in 1683, 140,000 Ottoman troops would pour into Central Europe unopposed, once again making Europe fall to Islam. After the victory, Sobieski wrote to Pope Innocent: “We came, we saw, but God conquered.”
These were clearly just wars. And they saved the West.
But there are numerous, countless other examples. World War II, where over 75 million people died, including 25 million soldiers and over 50 million civilians, was justified because of the threat of Nazi control over all of Europe and for a thousand years, a reign of darkness. Only the cowards were blamed in the aftermath of World War II for their failure to act decisively, and that included British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who wanted to negotiate with Hitler but was too afraid to confront and combat Hitler.
While the pope did not immediately reference Operation Epic Fury, many who are defending the pope are referencing this war not being justified as was his intention in that homily. While that may be exactly what the pope had in mind, that’s not at all what his homily said nor was that was he attacking.
The West has become increasingly week and vulnerable. Much of the West has been hollowed out spiritually, morally, economically, and even demographically.
For the past two decades, the West has absorbed Islam and, along with it, jihadi terrorism on Western soil. In the month of March alone, there were at least four terrorist attacks on American soil, and most all of them have been ignored by the media, while current podcasters are far too concerned about the “Jewish conspiracy” to give an honest appraisal of these ongoing and continuing threats.
As Christians we must be sober-minded in understanding what is at stake here when it comes to biblical truth, the battle between good and evil, God’s purpose for a just government, and the propaganda war that is being waged to confuse all of this under the shadow of endless conspiracies and suspicion.
Any public figure that would either ignore terrorism or justify nations that sponsor terror while simultaneously laying endless accusations and propaganda against nations and governments working to defend their freedom is not trustworthy and could very well be an agent of chaos.
As Christians we know that war is not a good unto itself. War is grim. War means bloodshed and death. We must mourn war.
We can affirm that we must do all that we can to ensure that war is a means of last resort. But to say that war can never be justified is to create the very argument that defends evil, while creating mass victims.
There are and have been times when war as a matter of defense has been obedience and faithfulness to God and what he has called Christian men and leaders to do in their strength and in honor. Anyone who loves Christ and his neighbor can understand that.
Just war is not a Christian’s compromise with evil, it is a Christian’s duty and refusal to let evil go unpunished.
If you value fearless biblical analysis that equips Christians to think clearly about war, peace, and the defense of the innocent, make a tax-deductible gift to the Standing for Freedom Center today. Your support helps strengthen the Church, defend truth in the public square, and preserve the moral foundations of faith, family, freedom, and America.
