the catholic church has tended to act in it's self-interest in supporting wars that are in it's benefit, whatever that means at the specific time. it might mean anything from ignoring hitler to hiring normans as mercenaries in italy to sending peasants to die in the middle east. it is a deeply machiavellian institution that is concerned strictly with maximizing it's own power and it's own wealth.

the current papacy, since napoleon, has been restricted from holding any real power. this isn't the institution's choice. if allowed to kill people again, the papacy would jump at the opportunity. it is of the utmost importance to global security that the papacy continue to be marginalized in a political sense.