Matt25:
Which wars has the Church called Holy? The Popes called for a war of the cross (crusade) to retake the Holy Land but I’m not sure they referred to any war as Holy…
I am not an expert in this field. A quick search has found:
The history of the Crusades is therefore intimately connected with that of the
popes and the
Church. These Holy Wars were essentially a papal enterprise.
A resolutions adopted at the Council of Lyons, which opened on 7 May, 1274, provided that one-tenth of all
benefices accruing to all churches in the course of six years should be set aside for the benefit of the Holy Land, the object being to secure the means of carrying on the holy war.
What the council had to say is here.To prevent this holy proposal being impeded or delayed, we strictly order all prelates of churches, each in his own locality, diligently to warn and induce those who have abandoned the cross to resume it, and them and others who have taken up the cross, and those who may still do so, to carry out their vows to the Lord. And if necessary they shall compel them to do this without any backsliding, by sentences of excommunication against their persons and of interdict on their lands, excepting only those persons who find themselves faced with an impediment of such a kind that their vow deservedly ought to be commuted or deferred in accordance with the directives of the apostolic see. In order that nothing connected with this business of Jesus Christ be omitted, we will and order patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, abbots and others who have the care of souls to preach the cross zealously to those entrusted to them.
The cross referred to is the cross of the crusade,
for the Council continues:
Let them beseech kings, dukes, princes, margraves, counts, barons and other magnates, as well as the communes of cities, vills and towns – in the name of the Father, Son and holy Spirit, the one, only, true and eternal God – that those who do not go in person to the aid of the holy Land should contribute, according to their means an appropriate number of fighting men together with their necessary expenses for three years, for the remission of their sins, in accordance with what has already been explained in general letters and will be explained below for still greater assurance. We wish to share in this remission not only those who contribute ships of their own but also those who are zealous enough to build them for this purpose. To those who refuse, if there happen to be any who are so ungrateful to our lord God, we firmly declare in the name of the apostle that they should know that they will have to answer to us for this on the last day of final judgment before the fearful judge. Let them consider beforehand, however, with what knowledge and with what security it was that they were able to confess before the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, to whom the Father gave all things into his hands, if in this business, which is as it were peculiarly his, they refuse to serve him who was crucified for sinners, by whose beneficence they are sustained and indeed by whose blood they have been redeemed.
I don’t think there is any doubt that the Crusade was considered a holy war by the Church, from the top down.
Blessed Angelo was appointed Apostolic Nuncio by
Pope Sixtus IV, and commissioned to preach the holy war against the invaders.
Even if they did it does not mean that such a notion exists in modern Catholic doctrine any more than the divine rights of King’s still has a place. Doctrine does develop you know. Aquinas expanded Augustine’s Just War Doctrine and the current Catechism refined our understanding of it still more.
I am not so sure a just war is not a holy war. That question, in my mind, is still open for debate.
