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The Battle for Peace: The Church's Teaching on the Just War

Associate Pastor's Column

Sunday, June 25, 2006

            It’s much more satisfying to be truly loved by a human being than, say, one’s pet. Pets know us on the outside; men know us spiritually; but God alone knows us totally, and therefore he alone can love us as we should be loved. Such is our supernatural vocation in this life.

For our hearts were made both to love and to be loved, and this is truly the universal vocation of all men (male or female, needless to say), a vocation which can only be answered by a life of union with God.

            Now let’s put this supernatural vocation in the context of the fact that man is by nature social. Writers of every genre have approached this reality with pithy expressions such as, “No man is an island, entire of itself” (John Donne, Meditation XVII). Again, Aristotle asserted that “Man is by nature a political animal,” an expression which can have both humorous and catastrophic uses; but a less literal and more in-context translation would be, “Man is by nature a living thing with the property of living in society.” So it is, that if man is called to be formed into the image of Jesus Christ, the society in which he lives must also become saturated with his new life of grace.

            Therefore the Church has a message of salvation for man which also and necessarily is directed toward the human world in which man lives: his family, his business, his associations, his culture, and even his economic and political societies. So let no one assert that the Church should shut her mouth before the political state. On the contrary, no one can save the political states which men have created except God himself, and he offers salvation through the Catholic Church: Let the Church proclaim the Gospel to every man, to the whole of man, and to every dimension of man’s society.

            I wish to bring this home to a topic which comes up again and again: the question of war. I recently had a very lively conversation with a bunch of young adult students on this very topic. And it is opportune to speak of this now, when there’s no political vote on the immediate calendar, and thereby eliminate suspicions of partisan interests. The Church, in the name of Christ and guided infallibly by the Holy Spirit, lays down the moral teachings which serve as beacons in the midst of our dark world.

            Let me start here: the Church is not pacifist, she never was, nor will she ever be. She is peace making; pacifists are not peace making: rather, often they vent their aggressions in venues other than war, and use their pacifism to cause strife. The Church discourages war, not on the claim that it is intrinsically evil, for it is not; rather, because of the evils and injustices that “accompany” war (CCC 2307). Note: she does not assert that it is the war itself that is evil or unjust.

            “All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for peace” (CCC 2308), but sometimes all legitimate efforts for peace fail. In these cases, as Vatican II teaches, “governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense” (GS 79 §4), including the use of “military force” and “armed conflict” (CCC 2309, 2312). The Church clearly establishes the conditions for a “legitimate defense by military force,” or “just war,” which every Catholic in America really should learn by heart (and I quote CCC 2309):

1. “The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain;

2. “all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

3. “there must be serious prospects of success;

4. “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.”

Now, here’s another important point: the Church is the first one to say that she herself is NOT the one to determine whether in one case or another these conditions apply: “The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good” (CCC 2309), that is, governors of civil society, and not ecclesial hierarchy.

Therefore, if anyone tells you the Church condemns one war or another as immoral or unjust, you know automatically that’s not true, for her official position is to not form that particular judgment, as she states in this paragraph of the Catechism.

And so it is that peace sometimes must be maintained by force. It’s sad that evil men sometimes put other men in the position where they have to go to war. But when it happens, woe to the man who fails to fight due to cowardice, intrigue, agendas, or other such forms of irresponsibility. In fact, the soldier of the just war goes to war out of true charity, and is willing to risk his life for the triumph of peace over his nation and home.

 Let us thank the soldiers who daily risk their lives so we can live in peace, as well as others such as police officers and the like.

Many topics related to war could be addressed here, but space here does not allow: the inviolability of non-combatants, unintended consequences, weapons of mass destruction, the arms race, the weapons industry and market, and so on. I encourage the Gentle Reader to explore the Catechism (CCC 2307-2317) to refresh the Church’s positions, and the arguments for these positions, on all these delicate issues.

Picture: Paolo Caliari (Veronese) (1528-1588), Jesus and the Centurion, c. 1570-72, Prado, Madrid.