This article is intended as a grateful tribute to Pope Francis, as we celebrate his anniversary, and to Leo XIV for carrying out his Petrine ministry during this time, continuing and deepening Francis’s legacy. In particular, we will highlight the issues and realities of the Church’s moral theology and social doctrine (SDC) that the magisterium of these Popes, together with their witness, transmits to us in this era, continuing the Tradition of the Church and the teachings of their predecessors.

Certainly, ethical life and faith itself, with its essential theological dimension, as the nature of every person, have a constitutive social, public, and political dimension, especially since Pius XI, who also refers to it as “political and institutional charity” or “civic love.” It is the most extensive, universal, intelligent, and effective form of charity-love that promotes the common good of all humanity, the civilization of love, and the preferential option for justice for the poor, transforming the personal, structural, and other causes of evil and injustice.

This inherent political character of faith and of true human life, in particular, is what marks the specific vocation and identity of the laity. Indeed, the laity exercises this essential political charity more directly and immediately, with their own mission of renewing and managing the realities of the world and history, such as social, economic, institutional, cultural, and all other kinds of relationships. Therefore, the faith and the Church, with all its members—both the Pope and the various ordained and lay ministries, according to their vocation or charism—bear this public, political, moral, civic, and spiritual responsibility. Hence, they must proclaim and spread this faith that acts through political charity with its ethics of the common good, of solidarity and fraternity, of peace and justice with the poor of the earth, in the Spirit, following Jesus and his project of the Kingdom.

The Gospel of Christ, the revealed and incarnate God, through his Kingdom, brings us all this political, ethical, and spiritual teaching and life, with its values ​​and principles of promoting life and human dignity, love and solidarity, peace, non-violence, and justice for the poor. Thus, we emphasize, all this moral teaching is conveyed to us through the Social Doctrine of the Church (SDC), whose dissemination and implementation is an integral and indispensable part of the mission of the Church, of every Catholic Christian who, together with all people of good will, must commit themselves to this search for a more just and fraternal world. This is just as God, in Jesus Christ, manifests through the Kingdom and his justice, with the gift of his liberating and integral salvation from all evil, sin, death, all slavery, and injustice.

This morality and Catholic Social Teaching, like faith itself with the Gospel of the Incarnate Word (Jesus), is embodied in reality, made concrete and deepened by the “signs of the times,” by the circumstances and conditions of personal, social, and historical reality. As Benedict XVI emphasized and as Francis continues to explain (for example) in the encyclical  Fratelli tutti  (FT 209) or in EG (n. 224), natural law—human nature, spiritual, moral, and social—has values, principles, and key elements that are permanent, universal, inalienable, and non-negotiable. These include the defense and promotion of the sacred and inviolable  life and dignity  of the person in all its phases, dimensions, and aspects.  Marriage and family,  that faithful love between man and woman which bears fruit in children, are sanctuaries of life, schools of sociability and moral, social, and civic virtues.  Freedom  , whether educational or religious, stands in opposition to totalitarianism and ideologies that seek to dominate. And  the common good  in its various forms, which is contained in all the teaching of the Social Doctrine of the Church, is inseparable from peace, which is always linked to social justice with the poor, to the promotion of human rights, to global solidarity, to human development and integral ecology.

“Relativism is not the solution. Cloaked in a supposed tolerance, it ends up making it easier for the powerful to interpret moral values ​​according to the conveniences of the moment. If, ultimately, ‘there are no objective truths or solid principles outside of the satisfaction of one’s own projects and immediate needs […] we cannot think that political projects or the force of law will be sufficient. […] When culture is corrupted and no objective truth or universally valid principles are recognized, laws will only be understood as arbitrary impositions and obstacles to be avoided’  ( Laudato si’  123 ).  For a society to have a future, it must have embraced a profound respect for the truth of human dignity, to which we submit. Then, killing someone will not be avoided merely to avoid social scorn and the weight of the law, but out of conviction. It is an inalienable truth that we recognize with reason and accept with conscience. A society is noble and respectable also because of its cultivation of the search for truth and its adherence to…” the most fundamental truths.” (FT 206-297).

Thus, in order to realize and update this natural-moral law united with the same faith, which must be embodied in these circumstances and conditions of reality, the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church with the Second Vatican Council, with its own Catechism (CCC) and the CSI: continue to deepen these values ​​or principles such as the defense of life and the dignity of the person; likewise, as Francis also teaches (AL 301) and his reference to Saint John Paul II (FC 33) together with theological ethics, moral or other norms must be consistent with the aforementioned values ​​and principles or other criteria, which are fundamental and inherent to these norms, to the moral actions themselves. Just as the contents of the natural-divine law, of the Word of God itself, of the Gospel of Jesus, must always guide and illuminate these moral norms or laws so that they are integral and true (real) according to the concrete moral good with its specific circumstances and conditions (Francis, AL 304, which refers to the teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas).

Hence, to put the current reality of a real assumption in this development of faith (truth) and living morality, the rejection of the death penalty by the church, which no longer considers it acceptable with our aforementioned conditions and specific circumstances, as has been specified in its own  Catechism  (CIC). “Today, there is a growing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. Furthermore, a new understanding of the meaning of penal sanctions imposed by the State has spread. Finally, more effective detention systems have been implemented, guaranteeing the necessary defense of citizens, but at the same time not depriving the offender of the possibility of definitive redemption. Therefore, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it violates the inviolability and dignity of the person’ ( Address of Pope Francis on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church ), and is resolutely committed to its abolition throughout the world” (CCC 2267). The Catechism itself, addressing this theology and moral life, emphasizes the importance of considering these circumstances and conditions, or various factors, in other matters, such as discerning the subjective responsibility of the person who commits evil, who sins. Obviously, without denying objective ethical truth, natural-moral and divine law, these universal and non-negotiable principles and values ​​(cf. AL 302; CIC 1735, 2352).

Francis has underlined and confirmed this with his authentic teaching in The Faithful, following his predecessors. “There is another way of making the other disappear, which is directed not at countries but at persons. It is the death penalty. Saint John Paul II, in  Evangelium Vitae  (EV 56), declared clearly and firmly that this is inadequate in the moral sphere and is no longer necessary in the penal sphere” (The Faithful 246). In this sense, in line with all this moral theology and Catholic Social Teaching with its global bioethics, with Popes like Francis the Church has continued to adjust this ethic of life and the Catechism itself, “obliged as we are to strive to avoid war…; thus rigorously considering the  strict conditions   of  legitimate self-defense by means of military force”  (CCC 2308-2309; cf. EV 56).

As St. John XXIII already demonstrates in his encyclical on  Peace on Earth  (PT), “ the tragedy of a world war, with  its  economic and social ruins and its moral aberrations and disturbances, must not  be allowed  to befall humanity for a third time,” Pius XII warned  . “Nothing is lost by peace; everything can be lost by war…”  (PT 113-116) . “ The terrible destructive power of present-day armaments and the fear of the horrible calamities and ruins that such armaments would bring about. For this reason, in our age, which boasts of possessing atomic energy, it is absurd to maintain that war is a suitable means of redressing a violated right” (PT 127). Hence, “all peoples, by virtue of an agreement, should reach a simultaneous disarmament, controlled by mutual and effective guarantees” (PT 112).

The Second Vatican Council, in this regard, communicates to us the indispensable need for this simultaneous and global disarmament, describing the arms race and industry as “the most grievous plague on humanity and an intolerable harm to the poor” (GS 81). It is “the horror and evil of war, which are greatly increased by the development of scientific weapons. With such weapons, military operations can produce enormous and indiscriminate destruction, which thus far exceeds the limits of legitimate self-defense. Moreover, if these means, which are already in the arms depots of the great nations, were to be fully employed, there would be almost complete and total mutual slaughter on both sides of the enemy, not to mention the thousands of devastations that would appear throughout the world and the pernicious effects resulting from the use of such weapons. All this obliges us to examine war with a completely new mindset” (GS 80). Therefore, Vatican II continues, the Church considers the current “military action, which indiscriminately aims at the destruction of entire cities or large regions along with their inhabitants, a crime against God and humanity that must be condemned firmly and without hesitation” (GS 80). And it demands that “all wars be absolutely forbidden. This requires the establishment of a universal public authority, recognized by all, with effective power to guarantee security, the administration of justice, and respect for human rights” (GS 82), as Saint John XXIII also points out (PT 136-139); thus, essential conditions for opposing all war and spreading peace become possible.

Thus, together with the Council and the other Popes, Saint John Paul II reaffirmed his   “No, never again war! War destroys the lives of the innocent, teaches how to kill and equally disrupts the lives of those who kill, leaves behind a trail of resentment and hatred, and makes it more difficult to find a just solution to the very problems that caused it. Just as within each State the time has finally come when the system of private vengeance and retaliation has been replaced by the rule of law, so too is it urgent now that such progress take place in the international community” (CA 52). This holy Pope continues to highlight these conditions in order to reject all war and make possible the demand for peace, extending this global bioethics. Against the “culture of death”, he observes this “sign of hope of  a new sensitivity increasingly opposed to war  as an instrument for solving conflicts between peoples, and increasingly oriented towards the search for effective, but ‘non-violent’ means to stop armed aggression”    (EV 27).

In continuity, then, with all this moral teaching and the teaching of Catholic Social Teaching, Francis teaches how, in our “question, since the development of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and the enormous and growing possibilities offered by new technologies, war has been given an uncontrollable destructive power that affects many innocent civilians. It is true that ‘never before has humanity had so much power over itself, and nothing guarantees that it will use it well.’ Therefore, we can no longer think of war as a solution, because the risks will probably always outweigh any hypothetical benefits attributed to it. Faced with this reality, today it is very difficult to maintain the rational criteria developed in other centuries for speaking of a possible ‘just war.’ Never again war!” (FT 258). In the explanatory note to this text in issue 258 of The Financial Times, the Pope clarifies, elaborates on, and expresses that the Church no longer “holds the idea of ​​a ‘just war.’” He adds that St. Augustine, one of the first to raise this issue, emphasizes that God’s plan is “to achieve peace.” St. John Paul II, in his Petrine ministry, likewise does not accept “this concept of just war” (Journey from the UK to Rome, June 2, 1982).

In this regard, to seek just peace through nonviolence and prevent wars, we must promote: justice and human rights (Saint John XXII, PT), integral human development (Saint Paul VI, PP 76); and global solidarity with that permanent responsibility for the most universal common good, which liberates us all from sin, violence, and injustice, both personal and structural (Saint John Paul II, SRS 39). Ultimately, by addressing the root causes of social ills and their violence, peace is the fruit of this fraternal equity and solidarity with the poor, the victims, and all peoples (Francis, EG 59; FT 233-35). Pope Leo XIV conveys all of the above to us through his life, his teachings (for example,  Dilexi te )  , and his witness, which makes visible this “disarmed and disarming peace.” “Peace be with you!” (  Jn  20:19, 21) is the word of the Risen Jesus, who not only desires but also brings about a definitive change in those who receive it and, in this way, in all of reality. For this reason, the successors of the Apostles give voice every day and throughout the world to the most silent revolution: “Peace be with you!” (Leo XIV,  Message for the World Day of Peace  2026).