Yesterday, after the Sunday Angelus, our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV offered this prayer intention:

Our prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school Mass in the American State of Minnesota include the countless children killed and injured every day around the world. Let us plead God to stop the pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world. May our Mother Mary, the Queen of Peace, help us to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4).

Many WPI readers have probably seen already the phrase “pandemic of arms” in press reports; I have no doubt that a certain amount of controversy will follow on his words, especially in the highly online sectors of the American Church. Yet another expression, from his previous paragraph addressing the war in Ukraine, is just as salient:  he calls on responsible parties to “renounce the logic of weapons.” I contend that these two passages must be read together, for the Holy Father’s full meaning to be apprehended properly.

What is the “logic of weapons”? What are its internal mechanisms? Let us consider:

• Their plan is only to destroy (Ps. 62, 5): All weapons are tools of destruction. Even where the objective of the armed person is legitimate, the means by which this objective is pursued is destruction, or at the very least the threat of destruction. Most human tools and implements are instruments of co-creation, of building up; the efficacy of a weapon lies in its destructive power.
• You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (Mt. 5, 43): If one brackets purely recreational uses (including hunting, outside of the vanishingly few cultures in the modern world that still hunt for survival), the preeminent claim for legitimate weapons use is self-defense – which may well not be effectual without an undiscerned presumption of enmity. Beyond what this presumption does to the soul of the person holding it, it can has tragic ramifications for their loved ones or friends.
• You shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king that shall reign over them. (1 Sam. 8, 9): Especially on the larger scale, force of weapons confers power, and power often presents itself as its own justification. A recent example in the public eye shows the kind of peace that the world gives, based on weaponry.
• Panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction. (Lam. 3, 47): The use of weapons, whether in war or in interpersonal confrontations, introduces disorder, chaos, and randomness among nations and among persons, often unleashing chains of unintended consequences.
• If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed… he shall surely live. He shall not die! (Ezek. 18, 31): A weapon takes, as it were, a snapshot of the soul. Rather than a holistic relation, however fraught, to a person, the introduction of a weapon to a situation locks in the moment – irrevocably, if it is used to lethal effect.

The Holy Father’s reference to the “pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world” should be seen in this light. Especially where weapons are pervasive in a society, an awareness of a continuity of spirit between wars among nations and internal violence within a nation should ground our discernments. To cite an extreme (but by no means unique) case, that a Catholic priest with a prominent Internet ministry should respond to the Minneapolis tragedy by advocating for armed guards at every Catholic school and concealed-carry handguns among congregants at Mass[1] is horrifying and shows how truly necessary was the Holy Father’s intervention yesterday. It is clear that the logic of weapons prevails in certain parts of the Church on Earth; one would have hoped that such persons would have respected ancient traditions of the Church in this regard.

Some might ask: Do the Holy Father’s words imply pacifism, or the elimination of weapons from society? The latter is not realistically possible outside of exceptional circumstances, although stricter regulation is necessary in many countries, prominently including the United States. As for the former, the Church does not oblige pacifism, but does commend it in the context of resistance to evil.

Yet there is no need to parse the Holy Father’s words. Whatever condition he might or might not deem ideal, he is clearly testifying that the current condition is deficient. To address what is, with authority, humility, charity, a spirit of sacrifice and a willingness to suffer evil rather than commit it – and yes, very much, with due repentance and conversion where it is fitting – is quite enough of a formidable task. For this pandemic of arms which Pope Leo cites is as much or more a testimony to the sickness of our souls as to the inadequacy of our social structures.

[1] Yes, he does; check the comments.

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Paul Chu

Dr. Paul Chu is currently a philosophy instructor for CTState, the Connecticut Community College, and has previously taught philosophy in college, university, and seminary settings. He also served as a staff writer and editor for various national publications. He is co-founder of Sacred Beauty, a Private Association of the Faithful in the Diocese of Bridgeport dedicated to honoring the beauty and holiness of God through artistic and intellectual creativity founded in prayer, especially Eucharistic contemplation. He contributes regularly to https://questionsdisputedandotherwise.substack.com/.