The Roman Catholic Church has taken a firm stance against the U.S. plan to invade Iraq.
Pope John Paul II's Peace Minister, Pío Cardinal Laghi, was sent by the Church to talk with George W. Bush to express opposition to the war on Iraq. The Catholic Church says that it is up to the United Nations to solve the international conflict through diplomacy.
This war, and indeed most modern wars, do not satisfy the just war requirements set by St. Thomas Aquinas and other theologians. The method of total war, sometimes called terrorism (ie. any non accidental attacks on non combatants, or civilian infrastructure), used in most modern wars since the Civil War and which were used in Iraq, are not permitted. The Church was also worried of the fate of the Chaldean Catholics of Iraq, that they might see the same destruction as happened to the Churches and Monastaries after the war in Kosovo.
The person in charge for the Relations with the States, Archbishop Jean Louis Tauran, said that only the UN can decide on a military attack against Iraq, because a unilateral war would be a crime against peace and a crime against international law.
The Secretary of State of the Vatican indicated that only the United Nations Security Council has the power to approve an attack in self-defense, and only in case of a previous aggression. His opinion is this is not the case and that an unilateral aggression would be a crime against peace and a violation of the Geneva Convention.Crime against peace