The outbreak of war in Iran has resulted in the expected immediate denunciation from Pope Leo.  Hear me out.  Religious leaders, and Popes in particular, constantly preach for peace and love – it’s their job.  And that wouldn’t be a bad thing if they’d just keep their Roman noses out of politics.

On March 1, the day after the war began, Pope Leo told worshipers in Saint Peter’s Square, “I am following with deep concern what is happening in the Middle East and in Iran during this tumultuous time.  Stability and peace are not achieved through mutual threats, nor through the use of weapons, which sow destruction, suffering, and death, but only through reasonable, sincere, and responsible dialogue.”

Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn touched on this subject this week, in an article entitled, Homilies Won’t Liberate Iran.  In it, Mr. McGurn argues that “unless the Pope steers the Catholic Church back to its own teachings on this fraught topic, [the Pope’s advice] risks being dismissed, even by sympathizers.”  McGurn quotes Catholic theologian George Weigel, who has written, “The net result of the churches concessions to the political left has been to take religious leaders out of serious conversation with policy makers on matters of war and peace, leaving them to lob minatory rhetorical grenades from the bleachers.”

No one is suggesting that Pope Leo doesn’t mean well.  But the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, even when those intentions are mouthed by the Roman Pontiff.  As Mr. McGurn points out, history refutes the notion that stability and peace are achieved only through dialogue.  Armies can’t solve every problem, but no unarmed nation ever has been able to talk its way to peace.

Pollyanna Pope Leo certainly must know better.  Dialogue with Adolph Hitler did European leaders little good in the 1930’s.  Neville Chamberlain tried a dialogue with Hitler at Munich in 1938, hoping to appease Hitler with a piece of Czechoslovakia.  It ended his career.  The next year, Czech President Emil Hacha, a former Supreme Court Judge and international lawyer, attempted a dialogue with Hitler.  That talk ended with Hitler seizing the remainder of Czechoslovakia, and Hacha died in a Nazi prison camp.

There’s just no talking to some people.  Even Papal history bears out this point. Pope Leo’s call for “responsible dialogue” is a far cry from earlier Papal policy.  During the early 13th Century, the Church conducted the Albigensian Crusade, against the non-Catholic Cathars in France.  Before what became a massacre at Beziers in 1209, concerned military leaders went to the Crusade commander, Papal Legate Arnaud Amalric, with a problem.  Catholic Frenchmen and Cathars looked alike.  “How,” asked the soldiers, “will we know which of the people are the heretics?”  Amalric, the personal representative of the ironically named Pope Innocent III, didn’t advise dialogue.  He instead provided a simple explanation of Papal policy, “Kill them all, the Lord will know his own.”  Of course, he said this in Latin, “Caedite eos.  Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.”

Indeed the history of the papacy is a story of almost continual warfare by the Papal States.  Between 1081 and 1867, the Papal States, and thus a succession of Popes, conducted 31 different wars with neighbors of the Holy See.   In the early 16th Century, Pope Julius II, became known as “The Warrior Pope,” as he repeatedly swapped his holy vestments for suits of silver armor, to lead his troops on the battlefield.  The only dialogue Julius was having at this time was with Michelangelo.  “When are you going to finish the damned ceiling?”

More recent Popes also have understood that dialogue alone is no substitute for dialogue backed up with force or the threat of force.  Pope Pius XII was a virtual prisoner in the Vatican during World War II, as Nazi armies occupied Italy.  Pius knew all about responsible dialogue, but he also knew better than to open a dialogue with, or to criticize, Hitler.  As a result, Pius never denounced Nazi atrocities, even though he was fully aware of the ongoing Holocaust.

Pope John Paul II understood something that Pope Leo apparently has missed. The distinction between a war of aggression and “a just war.”  John Paul II partnered with Ronald Reagan to bring about the end of the Soviet Union.  He had good reason to do so, as he had experienced Soviet domination in Poland, and been the victim of a Soviet assassination attempt.

The present hostilities in Iran are not the result of a war of aggression.  The U.S. and Israel didn’t decide to shoot first before attempting a dialogue.  There were plenty of talks.  The problem is that it’s impossible to conduct a “reasonable, sincere, and responsible dialogue” with people who have proven themselves to be unreasonable, insincere, and irresponsible.

Il Duce Obama tried to talk and bribe the Iranians into pursuing peace in 2009.  He lifted sanctions, and paid them a $1.6 billion cash ransom, in return for their promises to abandon their nuclear program and to permit international inspections of their nuclear facilities.  The Iranians took the money, continued their pursuit of nuclear weapons, and denied access to the inspectors.

While the Iranians for decades funded Middle East terrorists, and supplied bombs that killed and maimed countless thousands, Papal denunciations of their conduct were sadly missing.  When the Iranian government slaughtered tens of thousands of its own citizens, for the crime of protesting government policy, while it was at the same time engaged in a dialogue with the U.S., Pope Leo did not see fit to intervene.

Yet after the Iranians told our negotiators they would never give up their quest for nuclear bombs, leaving warfare as the only option, and then after the Iranians extended the war by attacking at least 12 other neighboring States, Pope Leo decided to weigh in.  His heart may be in the right place, but his words will have no effect.

Mr. McGurn and Mr. Weigel are right.  A Church that has strayed from even its own policies, and that has taken up every leftist cause in recent years, is in no position to pontificate.  There’s no hope that the Pope can act as a detached mediator to end this dispute.  It’s not Leo’s fault.  The Iranians are at war even with their Muslim brothers.  They’re not about to listen to an infidel Pope.

Sadly, the papacy has lost its moral authority.  Its leftist leanings have made it just another one of the usual leftist suspects.  Recent Popes have turned the Vatican into nothing more than the Italian chapter of the Hollywood crowd.  Its pronouncements full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing.

There’s nothing wrong with praying for peace.  But a good prayer, accompanied by a squadron of bombers and some cruise missiles is a lot more effective.