Inbox Inspiration: April 27, 2022: Unjust War 1-2

 

INBOX INSPIRATIONS

April 27, 2022

 

An Unjust War – 1       

 

Dear Friends,

Dating back to the time of Saint Augustine (around 400 CE), the Church has had a teaching on warfare. 

Specifically, the Church began to teach that war could at times be justified. 

The theologians and teachers of the Church, like Augustine, held two foundational tenets.

First, in the human situation, conflict is inevitable and sometimes that conflict will evolve into war.

Second, there must be restraints both upon the reasons for initiating a war and upon the manner in which a war is conducted.

Through the centuries, these foundational beliefs led to the development of the just war teaching.

However, before getting into that, there are several other developments in our Catholic moral thinking that are notable. 

 

From the early centuries, the Church has accepted pacifism.

The condition for this is that the pacifist or conscientious objector must be dedicated to the cause of justice and is not indifferent to the common good and the basic rights of others.

In our Church tradition, there has also been vocational pacifism where the refusal to participate in war arises from one’s vocational choice. 

This has been the case in most religious orders and in diocesan priesthood. 

The Church also assumes that those who support and participate in a war that is seen as just do so for the cause of peace and the common good.

Therefore, “Catholicism permits pluralism as to how the individual believer may live out the commitment to a just and peaceful order.”

  

A final preliminary point is that Saint Pope John Paul II clearly spoke against the use of nuclear weapons.

He seemed to conclude that nuclear weapons would never be justifiably allowed.

 

I will continue this topic next week by looking specifically at the principles for a just war.

For now, let me just say that Russia’s war against Ukraine is an unjust war, and we will see why that is so according to Catholic moral principles.    

 

Father Michael Schleupner

 

Quotation above from War, an article in The New Dictionary of Catholic Social Thought, by Kenneth R. Himes, O.F.M.  

An Unjust War - 2

Dear Friends,
As I said in last week’s Inbox, for the last eighteen hundred years, our Church has had a teaching on warfare. 
By the year 400 CE, the Church began to teach that war could at times be justified. 
However, the Church has always approached this with great caution. 
It has carefully developed moral principles to guide us in our consideration of war. 
The criteria for a just war, for justifying warfare, include the following.
 

1. Just cause. There must be a just reason for going to war – like the defense of human rights or of human life itself.
2. Competent authority. Usually, war can only be declared by a sovereign nation. It can only be initiated by a legitimate civil authority.
3. Right intention. This seems to follow from what is above. The intention of the competent authority must be the well-being or common good of people. 
4. Last resort. All other means to address wrongs or injustices must have been tried. All diplomatic efforts must first be tried and exhausted.
5. Probability of success. There must be at least some likelihood that the war will succeed in bringing about justice and an end to the evil being inflicted on others.
6. Proportionality. There must be some proportion between the destruction and loss of life caused by war and the evil that is being addressed. Please note: this principle almost automatically rules out the use of nuclear weapons and makes their use never justifiable.
7. Discrimination. In waging war, there must be a discrimination or distinction between those in combat and innocent civilians. Targeting innocent civilians or entire populations would never be morally permissible.    

 
Perhaps to make all of this even clearer: 
Pope Pius XII taught that wars of aggression are never morally permissible.
He also taught that defensive war against aggression is reluctantly permissible.
This topic is quite different from my usually topics, but I felt drawn to reflect on it for obvious reasons at this time.    
 
Father Michael Schleupner