Wojna w nauczaniu papieża Franciszka. Czy zmiana nauczania Kościoła katolickiego?
War in the Teaching of Pope Francis: Is the Teaching of the Catholic Church Changing?

Summary/Abstract: The issues of “war” and “peace” are a constant aspect of Pope Francis’ teaching. The aim of this paper is to determine whether Francis’ stance on war is a continuation of the hitherto realistic view of this phenomenon found in the teaching of the Catholic Church or whether it has come closer to idealistic notions. The research focuses mainly on an exegesis of the statements of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and to a lesser extent an interpretation of his actions and omissions. We conclude that, in the case of the current pope’s teaching, we are dealing with a modification of the approach to war and peace adopted in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, consisting in the formal acceptance of the idea of a „just war” combined, however, with the imposition of important limitations on it. Similarly to apologists of pacifist humanism, Francis demonstrates an optimistic belief in the possibility of building a world order without violence. Significantly, he attempts to combine the promotion of pacifist ideals with an appeal to Christian moral principles. This rather intellectually daring ideological juxtaposition, freely treating both historical circumstances and contemporary events, provides Francis with a starting point for analysing and assessing the current destabilisation of the world order in international rela- tions. In our view, Francis assumes that the main contemporary sources of war lead to human exclusion (in various aspects of existence) and the degradation of nature. For Francis, therefore, the vindication of a state of peace and thus the unconditional abandonment of war depends directly on the quality of life of the human race and the connected capacity of the ecosphere. At the same time, Francis avoids rec- ognising Russia as a state that has attacked another state (Ukraine). This, and the avoidance of drawing consequences from the assumption of man’s original sin-contaminated nature, makes Francis’ teaching on war internally incoherent.

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