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Pope Leo calls just war theory 'outdated' in new encyclical | The Christian Century

christiancentury.org

Pope Leo XIV's new encyclical declares just war theory obsolete in the age of AI — and that could upend 1,600 years of Catholic moral reasoning about violence.

Just War TheoryNatural Law TheoryMoral PhilosophyTechnology Ethics
Pope Leo calls just war theory 'outdated' in new encyclical | The Christian Century

Theory Briefing

  • Pope Leo XIV's encyclical, primarily focused on AI, quietly calls Catholics to move past just war theory as a moral framework.
  • Just war theory — rooted in Augustine and Aquinas — has guided Catholic thinking on legitimate violence for over 1,600 years.
  • The Pope's challenge suggests that modern warfare technologies, especially AI, have made the classic criteria for 'just' conflict impossible to satisfy.
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