BREAKING: The Catholic Church HUMILIATES J.D. Vance and Mike Johnson by releasing a brutal statement explaining "just war theory" after they both tried to invoke it to defend Trump's illegal Iran War. This is like arguing theoretical physics with Albert Einstein... “For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war," Bishop James Massa, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, said in a statement. "A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2308)," he continued. "That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.’" “When Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ," he added. "The consistent teaching of the Church is insistent that all people of good will must pray and work toward lasting peace while avoiding the evils and injustices that accompany all wars.” The statement offers a sharp rebuke to Vance, a man who claims to be a Catholic, after he argued at a Turning Points USA event that the pope was wrong to criticize the war. “I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology‚” Vance, an adult convert to the faith, said. “If you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful, you’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth." He added that there is a “more than 1,000-year tradition of just war theory” within the Catholic Church. Speaker Johnson, an Evangelical, echoed similar sentiments earlier today when he said that he was "taken aback" by Pope Leo's anti-war remarks. “It’s a very well-settled matter of Christian theology. There’s something called the just war doctrine," said Johnson. While Vance and Johnson are correct in the very narrow sense that just war theory exists, they are dead wrong in their application. The Iran War meets none of the criteria under the time-honored framework and in fact violates every single one of them. According to the Catholic Catechism and traditions dating back to Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas, a war must have a "just cause," which this one clearly does not. Trump attacked Iran because Israel wanted to destabilize a regional adversary in order to make their territorial expansion easier. It must be waged with "legitimate authority" but Trump didn't seek Congressional approval in blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution. It must be motivated by "right intention" but the White House can't even articulate coherent goals for the conflict. One day they pretend it's about nuclear weapons (despite our intelligence agencies concluding that Iran was not seeking such weapons). The next day it's about bringing democracy to the oppressed Iranian people (a claim that's dramatically undermined by the killing of those very same civilians by American bombs). It must have a "probability of success" which this war did not. Trump was never going to bomb Iran into submission and a ground war would end in unmitigated disaster for the United States. This war was always going to be a terroristic bombing campaign that resulted in nothing but the loss of innocent lives. A war must have "proportionality," meaning that it prevents more harm than it causes. In the case of the Iran War, no harm has been prevented but mass suffering has been inflicted, not just in Iran, but also in Lebanon where Israel has launched a brutal invasion, slaughtering civilian populations and seizing land. In other words, Pope Leo is absolutely right to condemn this war as a moral atrocity. Vance and Johnson have abandoned the true teachings of Jesus Christ to pander to the demented pedophile in the White House. They have chosen political power over truth and revealed themselves as fraudulent Christians in the process. Please ❤️ and share if you staunchly oppose the Iran War!
