Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel

The days 8-9 February 2025 are indicated as a Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (nn.2310-2311), referencing the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (n.79) teaches:

Public authorities... have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defence.

Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honourably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace.

Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community in some other way.

The life of a French soldier, Marcel Valentin, offers a testimony to a life of military service that was, in different places, at the service of peace. In 1993, he was for six months the commander of the UN Protection Force in the Sarajevo sector during the Serb siege of that city. In 1999, he commanded a NATO force in Macedonia at a time when large numbers of refugees came to Macedonia to escape the conflict across the border in Kosovo. Two years later, Valentin commanded KFOR in Kosovo for 12 months, with a mission to provide a secure environment for the development of a normal society at a fragile time for that region. He finally held commands in his native France, as military governor of Paris and commandant of the Ile-de-France and French overseas territories, where he took a particular interest in promoting contact between the military and civil society.

General Valentin's career is celebrated in a book length interview that was published in 2006: General Valentin "De Sarajevo aux banlieues, mes combats pour la paix". At one point in the interview, General  Valentin is asked how he would define the role of a soldier today [pp.148ff]. He first of all points out an aspect of the role that has not changed - the soldier receives a delegated authority to use force, and not just in legitimate self defence. The soldier is allowed to use force when ordered to do so to attack an enemy who may not represent a direct immediate threat to them as an individual. What has changed is the way in which that use of force must be adapted to the circumstances in which it is exercised. At one time there may have been a well defined enemy (Soviet Russia during the Cold War) and a well defined mission to defend national territory and national populations. Nowadays, soldiers are often deployed among adversaries to bring about the wishes of the international community:

... the soldier is obliged to be a communicator, to address themself towards civilian populations, to be a diplomat. Force is still their principle means but it is necessary to widen their know-how and to use different abilities.

One expression of the commitment of the military vocation in favour of peace is the International Military Pilgrimage which takes place in Lourdes each year. During this pilgrimage, soldiers of many different nations, including nations that may have been in conflict with one another, come together in pilgrimage. Writing in this context, General Valentin describes how the vocation of a soldier has changed in recent times.

Acting more and more on the side of those who have become hostages or victims of crises, (soldiers) find themselves living alongside them, sharing their distress and their misery in which more often than not they are the only ones who can bring some relief. Confronted with the possibility of violent death, like their predecessors, they appreciate the true value of civil peace and the need to safeguard it.

In the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee 2025 (n.8), Pope Francis writes:

The first sign of hope should be the desire for peace in our world, which once more finds itself immersed in the tragedy of war. Heedless of the horrors of the past, humanity is confronting yet another ordeal, as many peoples are prey to brutality and violence. What does the future hold for those peoples, who have already endured so much? How is it possible that their desperate plea for help is not motivating world leaders to resolve the numerous regional conflicts in view of their possible consequences at the global level? Is it too much to dream that arms can fall silent and cease to rain down destruction and death? May the Jubilee remind us that those who are peacemakers will be called “children of God” (Mt 5:9). The need for peace challenges us all, and demands that concrete steps be taken. May diplomacy be tireless in its commitment to seek, with courage and creativity, every opportunity to undertake negotiations aimed at a lasting peace.