Gerard Powers
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Director, Catholic Peacebuilding Studies; Coordinator, Catholic Peacebuilding Network
- Ethics of the use of force
- Religion, conflict and peacebuilding
- Ethics and U.S. foreign policy
Powers’s Latest News
Powers in the News
South Bend Tribune
Local Catholics in South Bend reflect on first year of Leo's papacy
May 12, 2026
Pope Leo has made headlines of late for his vociferous opposition to the Iran conflict. But Gerard Powers, director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, said a pope weighing in on the use of military force is nothing new.
National Catholic Reporter
Pope Leo upholds Vatican opposition to nuclear weapons despite Trump's 'weak' critique
April 30, 2026
"The pope is the one who is clear-eyed and understands the need for preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but also the appropriate means for pursuing that goal," said Gerard Powers, director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
The Conversation
What is a just war? Inside the war of words between the Trump administration and the Catholic church
Audio
April 30, 2026
In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, Jerry Powers, the director of Catholic Peace Building Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, explains how the Catholic church’s just war tradition evolved and the influence it’s had on US military thinking. Powers was a senior advisor on international policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the Iraq war, and was involved in efforts to persuade the Bush administration not to invade.
America
How to justly conduct an unjust war? Catholic scholars weigh in on Iran
April 22, 2026
This piece includes commentary from both Daniel Philpott, professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, and Gerard F. Powers, director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
OSV News
As chaotic demonstrations erupt across US, Catholic experts counsel nonviolence
June 11, 2025
Gerard Powers — director of Catholic peacebuilding studies and coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network at Notre Dame University’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies — agreed. Powers cited the crucial role Catholics have had in nonviolent protests — from People Power in the Philippines and Solidarity in Poland, to the anti-Iraq War protests in 2003 and the annual March for Life in Washington.
National Catholic Reporter
Notre Dame peace scholar advises Catholic voters to use social teaching as guide
October 11, 2024
A recent speaker at a South Bend, Indiana, parish said he was not going to tell parishioners how to vote, nor would he present a Catholic report card on the two presidential candidates. Instead, Gerard Powers, director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, said he wanted to offer "some things to consider if we are trying seriously to vote from a Catholic perspective."
Catholic News Agency
Catholic leaders to attend ‘groundbreaking’ forum on nuclear weapons in New Mexico
September 17, 2024
Academic voices will include Maryann Cusimano Love, associate professor of international relations at The Catholic University of America; Richard Love, professor of national security strategy at the National Defense University; and Gerard Powers, director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
America
‘The world’s on fire’: How the Catholic Church is responding to global warfare
July 10, 2024
It can keep doing what it has always been doing, says Gerard Powers, coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and the director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
America
‘Budgets reflect priorities’: Former leaders alarmed by layoffs at U.S. bishops’ peace and justice department
July 09, 2024
“Whatever the reason for the cuts, the bishops have much less capacity to be in solidarity with a Church that is in the forefront of work for justice and peace from Congo and Colombia to Ukraine and the Holy Land,” [Gerard] Powers wrote. Conference leadership cited finances for the decision, but several former leaders have questioned that financial rationale.
National Catholic Reporter
‘Which parts of the world do we stop covering?’ Former leaders alarmed by USCCB layoffs ask
July 08, 2024
Because of that reduced capacity, [Gerard] Powers, who now serves as the coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and as the director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame, wrote, “The wider Catholic community in the United States must find new ways to continue to respond to the world’s most pressing needs, as it has done so effectively for so long.”
Religion News Service
‘Which parts of the world do we stop covering?’ Former leaders alarmed by USCCB layoffs ask
July 05, 2024
Because of that reduced capacity, Powers, who now serves as the coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and as the director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame, wrote, “The wider Catholic community in the United States must find new ways to continue to respond to the world’s most pressing needs, as it has done so effectively for so long.”
National Catholic Reporter
Cardinal McElroy says church must 'redesign' just-war theory, favor nonviolent action
March 03, 2023
Drawing on six decades of papal teaching on peace, the cardinal told an audience at the University of Notre Dame on March 1 that Catholics are facing a "new moment" in history, one that requires finding nonviolent alternatives to prevent war.
Catholic News Service
Exhibit recalls Catholic journalists’ courage in Lithuania under Soviets
July 20, 2022
“The church had very limited freedom to operate because the Soviet authorities tried to control it in almost every aspect,” said Jerry F. Powers, director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Notre Dame and former policy adviser at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace.
Catholic News Service
Munitions Russia is using, justifications for war come under scrutiny
March 18, 2022
"Justification for secession is a difficult topic," said Gerard F. Powers, director of Catholic peacebuilding studies for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.
America
General Mark Milley had a predicament: Follow God’s orders or Trump’s?
September 16, 2021
Robert Latiff is a retired U.S. Air Force major general and an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame, researching emerging weapon and national security technologies, just war theory and law of armed conflict.... From a perspective of that tradition and the church’s position on the moral indefensibility of the use of nuclear weapons, any effort by Gen. Milley to thwart a possible nuclear strike was justified, said Gerard Powers, the director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Sojourners
We're Perfecting Our Capacity For Human Destruction
February 01, 2021
As Gerard Powers, coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the University of Notre Dame, wrote in a statement to Sojourners, “the nuclear signs of the times are as dire as ever.”