Catholicism and the concrete pursuit of peace how and where to draw the line — is a concrete thorn in the Church, evidence of the real effort.

For years, Catholic theology—and perhaps the Church itself—has faced an unresolvable dilemma when it comes to peace. The more decisive and radical the stance against war, the less effective and fruitful the advocacy for peace becomes. Despite the efforts of biblical arguments, theological reasons, and historical reconstructions of the development of Catholic tradition and magisterium in favor of peace, peace is precisely what is missing from our world today.

Some theologians assert that citizens have the right to oppose war and all its enormous expenses. However, they argue that citizens are not obligated to identify ways to end ongoing wars or to establish international relations based on peace. This responsibility and duty would fall to elected representatives in parliamentary assemblies and the governments of our democratic societies. This maximalist option of Catholic pacifism seems to express the unresolved dilemma in which theology—and, in many respects, the Church itself—remains embroiled.

This stance.

Almost 80 years ago, Pyongyang drowned Mao’s grand dreams. Will it now boost Xi’s? The Chinese president’s trip has impossible expectations: to begin to stem the Gordian knot of the regional arms race.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to North Korea is delicate and difficult. The relationship no longer resembles that of “lips and teeth” from the Korean War era — Korean lips and Chinese teeth. It has evolved into far more complex and contradictory ties, not one-sided but full of thorns for the Chinese.

North Korea is, in fact, the single greatest beneficiary of the war in Ukraine. In exchange for supplying weapons and troops, it has obtained Russian technology that has enabled a strategic leap in its missile and nuclear capabilities. This leap, however, has created two serious issues for China, which had naively encouraged Korean support for Russia to prevent its collapse and the dangerous fallout that would follow. 

The first is that it has.