War (or wars depending on your point of view) continue(s) in the Middle East. Australia is only a minor player with an aircraft deployed to the UAE, and now apparently promised to an international effort to open the Strait of Hormuz, but we are feeling its effects in our pockets as the price of fuel swings in response to Donald Trump’s pronouncements.
The USA-Israel war on Iran has pushed the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine into the background. Other conflicts in Africa and elsewhere scarcely rate a mention in Australian news sources because they seldom have a direct effect on most of us.
A recent piece in Commonweal magazine traces the history of papal condemnation of war over the past half century or more. The article is contextualised against the recent visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Vatican. Presumably he would have encouraged Pope Leo to be less vocal in his criticism of the USA-Israel war on Iran and there is evidence of some USA Catholics criticising the Pope’s criticism.
The strength of the Commonweal article is that it demonstrates how Pope Leo stands firmly in the tradition of Papal commentary on war and international relations. The button below links to the article. Commonweal is a subscriber site but non-subscribers can access three articles each month. This one is worth reading.
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