“Black Oriel” is a cool Gothic band name.

In my region of France, there are a lot of old apartments with oriels, but less decorated than this one. It’s great, there are often little benches under the windows.

Sometimes, we need to do something evil to prevent something worse. But that doesn’t make the evil thing good, right or just.

Theologian here, although not Catholic.

We could see this debate as the Catholic church being more progressive than the US and in part it’s true. But it’s a quite conservative view within the Catholic tradition: in the beginning of Christianity, all violence were deemed unjust, and people preferred to die than to be violent. Then Augustine and others theorized the just war, which is the base of the international war law. But in the 20^th century, the Catholic church evolved on the subject, stating again that all war were unjust:

• Any apotheosis of war is to be condemned as an aberration of mind and heart. (Pope Pius 12, 1953)
• It becomes impossible to believe that war is the appropriate means to obtain justice for a violation of rights. (Pope John 23)
• There is no just war (Pope Francis, 2022)

The current version of The Catechism of the Catholic Church never use the expression “just war”, and justifies only violence in case of defense.

So the fact that the pope is arguing about just war is not the church being progressive, but being in fact fusty according to its own tradition. I think the definition the pope has to just war is not the Augustinian one, but one that limit war to defense, so the difference between him and Francis on the ideas is in fact non-existent, but the usage of the expression is by itself a defeat.

Do you believe your wife will go to hell?

No. I don’t believe in all that “you have to confess Jesus as your personal lord and saviour to avoid hell” crap. It’s in fact something not very widespread outside evangelicalism. I believe the Cross is working mysteriously, far outside the frontier of the visible Church. A God who condemns people that doesn’t recognize him is not a loving God, it’s a pervert. I believe that “to confess Jesus as my personal lord and saviour” is a way to live a better life here and now, and I don’t expect an eternal reward for that.

Is she agnostic or does she believe there is no god?

I’d say she’s agnostic atheist. She doesn’t know if God exist, but believes he does not, and in fact doesn’t care.

I’m a Christian pastor happily married to an atheist, AMA.