Hello All,
In 1870, about the time of the American Civil War (not that long ago), States of the Church fell after being protected by wars for over millenium. The Church had been the largest land owner in Italy. No longer in possession of any land, Popes have never seen the need to back any wars since 1870 (as I am told), no matter what the attrocities being committed, even Hitler’s attrocities in WWII. Before 1870 Popes saw fighting to protect Rome (the Church), to be the faithful to God thing to do.
If you truly want to know the Church’s stand on war, one must look a little deeper than the last 137 years of pacifist Papal statements.
When reading about a millenium+ of States of the Church, one has to ask if popes, busy with wars, had any time for spiritual things? In one episode the Pope crossed the Alps, not an easy task, to get the Franks to come over and do war against the Lumbards to get four Church castles and Church land back.
I have to agree that Pope Benedict XVI does not mean “never” but is addressing instead the evil of the Muslim terrorists.
States of the Church
There Pepin executed in writing a promise to give to the Church certain territories, the first documentary record for the States of the Church. This document, it is true, has not been preserved in the authentic version, but a number of citations, quoted from it during the decades immediately following, indicate its contents, and it is likely that it was the source of the much interpolated “Fragmentum Fantuzzianum”, which probably dates from 778-80. In the original document of Quiercy Pepin promised the pope the restoration of the lands of Central Italy, which had been last conquered by Aistulf, especially in the exarchate and in the Roman Duchy, and of a number of more or less clearly defined patrimonies in the Lombard Kingdom and in the Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. The lands were not yet in Pepin’s hands. They had therefore first to be conquered by Pepin, and his gift was conditioned by this event.
In the summer of 754 Pepin with his army and the pope began their march into Italy, and forced King Aistulf, who had shut himself up in his capital, to sue for peace. The Lombard promised to give up the cities of the exarchate and of the Pentapolis, which had been last conquered, to make no further attacks upon or to evacuate the Duchy of Rome and the districts of Venetia and Istria, and acknowledged the sovereignty of the Franks. For the cities in the exarchate and in the Pentapolis, which Aistulf promised to return, Pepin executed a separate deed for the pope. This is the first actual “Donation of 754”.
But Pepin had hardly recrossed the Alps on his return home, when Aistulf not only failed to make preparations for the return of the promised cities, but again advanced against Rome, which had to endure a severe siege. The pope sent a messenger by sea, summoning Pepin to fulfil anew his pledge of loyalty. In 756 Pepin again set out with an army against Aistulf and a second time hemmed him in at Pavia. Aistulf was again compelled to promise to deliver to the pope the cities granted him after the first war and, in addition, Commachio at the mouth of the Po. But this time the mere promise was not considered sufficient. Messengers of Pepin visited the various cities of the exarchate and of the Pentapolis, demanded and received the keys to them, and brought the highest magistrates and most distinguished magnates of these cities to Rome. Pepin executed a new deed of gift for the cities thus surrendered to the pope, which together with the keys of the cities were deposited on the grave of St. Peter (Second Donation of 756).
Quoted from States of the Church
newadvent.org/cathen/14257a.htm