Well the pope just needs to not contradict their predecessors for this to hold. We’re (me included) snarking because Popes did materially support & call for wars, but (recorded) official statements have generally been anti-war.
Although funnily enough, unlike their roman counterpart, orthodox / coptic patriarchs always refused to call for holy wars, because:
As a matter of principle it didn’t really fit
Giving Christian support for wars made those wars (which were usually inevitable anyway) a Christian vs. non-Christian matter, meaning the church would die when it could survive under non-Christian management
And Muslims invading the eastern roman empire tended to be pretty tolerant & the taxes imposed by Muslims (including the Jizya) sometimes were even lower than those they paid under byzantine rule
And they also really did not care about the canon of the catholic churches (coptic, orthodox, roman), meaning heretics who would be burned or need to reform in Christian lands could live normally under Muslim rule
So the predecessor says ABC, and the current pope says no, are they both right and wrong?
Well the pope just needs to not contradict their predecessors for this to hold. We’re (me included) snarking because Popes did materially support & call for wars, but (recorded) official statements have generally been anti-war.
Although funnily enough, unlike their roman counterpart, orthodox / coptic patriarchs always refused to call for holy wars, because: