Let’s now venture into the Catholic world. Since I’m myself a practicing Catholic, it is a real pleasure of writing about Pope Francis. I don’t want to get too much into the nitty-gritty of the Catholic traditions, but some of you may find it informative. During the Easter season, the Regina Coeli prayer replaces the Angelus. Yesterday, Pope Francis took the opportunity presented to himself by the Regina Coeli prayer to call upon the international community to act, in a concrete way, against the murderous persecution of Christians around the world:

“They are our martyrs of today and there are many of them, we can say that there are more of them now than there were in other times. I hope that the International Community will not stand by, silent and inert, as we witness this unacceptable crime, which represents a worrying violation of the most basic human rights. I earnestly hope that the International Community will not turn a blind eye.”

The Pope is right. We must not stand idle while these atrocities are committed. Not standing idle means taking action. And the actions taken can only be conducted through military actions.

Some of my fellow Catholics might be tempted to agitate the white flags of blind pacifism, arguing that military actions diverge from the Catholic philosophy and traditions. But there’s a whole body of doctrine to support the actions that are now required, as St. Augustine – theoretician of the just war concept – demonstrates.