Here are some specific cases in which previous Popes had authority and opportunity in which to intervene.
W*, 1/15/81
Church and the Bomb
On the 35th anniversary of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Roman Catholic chaplain who served the airmen involved voiced strong misgivings. According to the Chicago "Tribune," priest George Zabelka "says he was 'brainwashed' by his church's silence and wholehearted cooperation with the U.S. military." The clergyman, now retired, reportedly declared that atomic bombing "happened in a world and to a Christian church that had 'asked for it'-by preparing the moral consciousness of humanity to justify the unthinkable."
Zabelka pointed out that Nagasaki had the largest Catholic population in Japan, and said: "One would have thought that I, as a Catholic priest, would have spoken out against the atomic bombing of nuns," since three orders of nuns were destroyed in the blast. He also observed: "One would have thought . . . as a minimal standard of Catholic morality, Catholics shouldn't bomb Catholic children. I didn't."
A, 1/19/1984 article excerpt, Many Religions-What Are Their Fruits?
Among more recent examples can be listed the violent outbreaks in the Indian state of Assam, in which Hindus battled Muslims; the ongoing war between Iran and Iraq, in which Shiite Muslims fight Sunni Muslims; the by now notorious conflict in Northern Ireland, in which Protestants slaughter Catholics and Catholics slaughter Protestants; the war and massacre in Lebanon, in which Christians, Jews and Muslims are entangled; and even the Falklands war, in which "army chaplains urged Argentine conscripts to fight to the death because it is God's will," according to the San Francisco Examiner.
This list by no means exhausts the current state of affairs, nor does it include the countless instances in the past of conflicts between nations and peoples fanned by religious fervor.
A, 7/22/1984 "I Started Out a Warbird but Ended Up a Dove"
... "If I drop a bomb on a city in southern Germany and a thousand people are killed," I asked the chaplain, "how many would be Catholic?"
"About 95 percent," he answered.
"So what right do I have to take the lives of 950 people who are of the same religion as we are?"
The priest replied: "We are fighting a just war."
"What makes a war just?" I asked.
"You are defending your country," he said.
"We are invading Italy and Germany," I said, puzzled. "Wouldn't they believe they were fighting the just war because they were the ones defending their homeland?"
"No," he answered. "We are fighting the just war."
That answer left me even more puzzled. I then asked the chaplain: "Why did the pope, the Italian bishops and priests bless the Italian troops to fight against us, and why are German priests now doing the same to their troops?" Patting me gently on the shoulder, he replied: "You must have faith, my son. The responsibility is not on our shoulders."
And a [probable] Anglican chaplain:
W, 9/1/57 The Business of a Chaplain
The book Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Their Correspondence tells about a letter written by English actress Stella Campbell to the British playwright ... about her son's death [in] ... World War I. She mentions ... a letter from the chaplain that was "full of tragic gentleness and praise of my brave son." Shaw [replies]: "It is no use: I can't be sympathetic: these things simply make me furious. I want to swear. I do swear. Killed just because people are blasted fools. A chaplain, too, to say nice things about it. It is not his business to say nice things about it, but to shout that 'the voice of thy son's blood crieth unto God from the ground.' [Gen 4:10] To hell with your chaplain and his tragic gentleness! The next shell will perhaps blow him to bits; and some other chaplain will write such a nice letter to his mother."
*All are taken from features and news items in Watchtower or Awake!. Most Witnesses will have access to paper or electronic copies.
BTW the above are all from one electronic index page, covering only 1930-1985, with this heading: CHAPLAINS (See also Christendom; Clergy; Military Service)
There are 13 citations on just that page, covering all the major religions, but Lee Koo tells me the server is filling up.
I end the way I began: There are many posts SE by people of all parts of the religious spectrum desiring an end to war.
The incumbent Pope has expressed the same desire.
Here have been examples of those nominally under authority of Popes who have encouraged war, directly or tacitly.
With billions of people directly and adversely affected by wars, a billion of them the Pope's sheep, can he do any less than he did in Sunday's speech?
Can he do more?
His bible says, "Put not your trust in princes, in man, in whom there is not salvation." (Ps 146:3, NAB) Is he perhaps the exception, to whom peace-loving people can look for help?
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