Cardinal McElroy sees peacebuilding as eclipsing just war tradition, says Catechism's teaching 'unfortunate' (National Catholic Reporter)

Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., said that Catholic teaching is increasingly moving away from the just war tradition toward a focus on peacebuilding, multilateralism, and active nonviolence.

Speaking at a Pax Christi International meeting in Rome on September 9-10, McElroy argued that the just war framework has been misused to justify conflict instead of acting as a limit on it. He described the Catechism of the Catholic Church's teaching that those responsible for the common good evaluate just war criteria as an unfortunate statement that accelerates this trend.