Thinking about Ukraine’s response to Russia’s aggression in the context of Catholic moral tradition requires a re-reading of Pacem in Terris. — By Massimo Faggioli, Commonweal Magazine; @MassimoFaggioli
The post-conciliar consensus arose from the fact that Pacem in Terris reflected an understanding of the world transitioning from an imperial-colonial order to the Cold War of ideological empires—the so-called “free world” against the atheistic Communist totalitarianism. That consensus is now in crisis, and the inversion of roles is complete: a “God-with-us” Russian regime against an anathematized, decadent, secular West.
This civilizational narrative is clearly ideological and instrumental. But sixty years on we can say that Pacem in Terris has been vindicated, especially in its insistence that “human coexistence must be considered above all as a spiritual fact.”
