Pope calls US-backed ‘just war’ idea outdated

Pope Leo XIV on Monday described the concept of a “just war”, advanced by US President Donald Trump’s administration, as “outdated”, warning that “humanity is slipping into a violent culture of power”.

“Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defence in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated,” he wrote in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity).