Translation of headline: the pope’s interpretation constitutes a bad legal ruling.

I am writing here about old news at this point, namely, remarks that Pope Leo XIV made last month on Palm Sunday. But I thought of those remarks anew as we now head into Yom Hatzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, and what it means for Jews to have an independent state today, particularly in light of centuries of persecution under the Catholic Church in Europe. The Catholic Church of today, in the wake of Vatican II, is no longer anti-Semitic, and has made great strides in its relationships with Jews. And Pope Leo seems like a sincere and morally upright person. I’m also proud as an American to see the first American Pope. I wanted to start with something nice…

When I was a Chaplain in the US Army Reserve, I actually connected on an intellectual level to my Catholic priest colleagues most of all. The Catholics have a tradition of oral interpretation and Canon Law which can be compared to our own system of halacha. In fact, Protestants often criticize both the Jews and the Catholics as being overly legalistic Pharisees for precisely this reason.

This is all why I was so disappointed to read the Pope’s remarks on Palm Sunday about the war in Iran. His hot take on the matter lacked the intellectual, legalistic nuance that is supposed to be common to both Halacha and Canon Law. Instead, his remarks struck me as simplistic and platitudinous.

The Vatican website records the part of his speech that I’m addressing here as follows:

“Pope Leo XIV went on to recall the prophet Isaiah’s words: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’ (Is 1:15). ‘Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,’ said the Pope. ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.’”

It’s rather morally shallow to just say “war is bad”, without even addressing Just War Theory, and how war is sometimes sadly necessary. Just War Theory actually owes its origins to St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic Church. In the army chaplaincy, we learned extensively about Just War Theory. I found the thought of Augustine to be quite wise and timeless on that front. However, Augustine also had a dark side to his thought as relates to the Jews, which I learned........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)