The Vatican's top doctrinal official has accused the European Union of selectively applying international law in its responses to armed conflicts, claiming that political and economic interests increasingly determine governments' positions on matters of war.
The statements were made on Friday at the opening of a closed meeting of Pope Leo XIV with cardinals from around the world, the European newspaper „Politico“ reported.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that governments are increasingly interpreting moral and legal principles according to political convenience rather than universal standards.
„If a country is an enemy, it is condemned as undemocratic and sanctioned in various ways; but if it is an ally, the fact that it lacks freedom of expression, human rights or democracy is ignored,” he said.
Regarding the EU, Fernandez pointed out that the bloc has imposed sanctions on some countries while providing financial and military support to others, without reacting in a similar way to “other, even more serious invasions with even more brutal consequences for entire peoples.” “These contradictions... suggest that in practice the concern is limited to the political and economic interests of the different regions of the globe. "There is no longer a real and stable framework of truth and values," he added.
The statements were made at an extraordinary assembly called by Pope Leo XIV to examine what he described as a global "culture of force" fueling modern wars.
The assembly is also considering a rethinking of traditional Catholic doctrine on just war. The cardinal argued that governments had stretched the concept of legitimate self-defense beyond its original meaning, citing Russia, the United States and other powers that have relied on broad claims of self-defense to justify military interventions from Ukraine to the Middle East. He warned that Catholic doctrine on just war itself had been manipulated to legitimize the "most unjust wars" and called for it to be interpreted "in the strictest sense," rejecting the concept of preventive war. According to a Vatican summary released after the discussions, many of the cardinals supported moving beyond traditional just war doctrine.