An Unjust Pacifism?

[Originally posted on MSN Spaces May 25, 2006]

- WARNING: This is a long blog. I mean really long. Cecil B. DeMille long -

Like many Americans, I just cannot seem to let the Iraq War go. However, if we are to believe polling data, I happen to be one of the few still in strong support of our military action both politically and theologically. Perhaps why I spend so much time thinking about it is because as a devout Roman Catholic I am pressured to believe that the Iraq War was unjust or that there is a presumption against war in general. Furthermore, Pope Benedict XVI - who is by all accounts a brilliant theologian - has stated that "the concept of pre-emptive war does not appear in the catechism." But I must admit that this is one issue on which I have to disagree with the Church's leadership. It is not dissent, per se, as contrary to issues like abortion it is not required of me as a Catholic to believe that the Iraq War was unjust, but I must strongly disagree because I am at a loss to understand from where the Church derived this new just war theology.

Church leaders, such as Cardinal Martino, have expressed their opinion that wars and any violence against another human being are evils and must be limited in their application as much as possible. In other words: war is evil but it is a necessary evil. This is in complete contradiction with a fundamental principle of Catholic moral theology which states that the end never justifies the means. Not sometimes, or as circumstances warrant, but never justfies the means. Therefore, to say that war, or violence against any human being, is an inherent evil would be to completely obliterate 1950 years of just war theory altogether. In order for war to be justly waged it must necessarily be a good in some cases, or at the very least not inherently evil. Otherwise, there are no circumstances under which a nation could morally wage war. To say "just war" and "wars are evil" in the same sentence is a logical contradiction. In other words, there is no room in Catholic moral theology for "necessary" evils. No evil is ever "necessary."

Furthermore, Sts. Augustine and Aquinas are very clear that only the leader(s) of a nation possesses the authority to declare war. This is, after all, consistent with Romans 13:4 ""He beareth not the sword in vain: for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil" and is also consitent with Christ's consent to the Centurians job as a soldier - who wars - in Luke 3:14 despite His teaching that an "eye for an eye" is immoral.

As explained in Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas:

"On the contrary, Augustine says in a sermon on the son of the centurion [*Ep.
ad Marcel. cxxxviii]: "If the Christian Religion forbade war altogether, those
who sought salutary advice in the Gospel would rather have been counselled to
cast aside their arms, and to give up soldiering altogether. On the contrary,
they were told: 'Do violence to no man . . . and be content with your pay' [*Lk.
3:14]. If he commanded them to be content with their pay, he did not forbid
soldiering."

They go on to say that it is never within the powers of an individual to take up arms of their own accord to avenge wrongs...with one exception: self-defense. It was understood that if one acts in self-defense no justification is necessary and if people who do not have the authority to go to war do not need justification for acting in self-defense, how much less justification would the leader of a nation need for acting in self-defense? Just war theory does not exist to legitimize something that warrants no justification but rather exists to justify aggressive - or should I say pre-emptive - wars. That seems to be the very point of just war theory and if there is no room in the Catechism for pre-emptive war in just war theory, I question whether there is a point to just war theory at all.

Pacifism, or a presumption against war,also seems entirely inconsistent with the Catholic Church's current push of the social justice movement. The principle motivation of the social justice movement is solidarity; we are all one family regardless of race, age, or creed. We should strive to help those in need around the globe just as we would help our own family members because we are all one in the living God. We are all one in Christ. That's all great and wonderful but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. We are called to give money to help the poor because surely we would not let our own children starve. But when people are systematicallly tortured, murdered and oppressed by their government there is silence. If my bride or my daughter was being tortured or murdered, you bet I would fight and I hardly think the Church would say I was unjustified for doing so. If we are called to step up to the plight of those without food, how much more are we called to step up to the plight of our brothers and sisters being systematically raped, tortured, and murdered? It seems that when promoting "justice" we emphasize the "comfortable" virtues, or rather those we can resolve from the comfort of our home by either writing a check or electing government officials to tax our income more heavily. But, when the ultimate sacrifice is asked of us, for as Christ says there is no greater gift than to lay down one's life for another, we do nothing but sit on the sidelines and hope that eveything will turn out ok.

The fact of the matter is that God desires justice and above all desires to achieve justice through us. God does not simply let manna fall from heaven upon all those who are starving or let fall t-shirts and jeans from heaven on those who are naked. Does that mean God loves them any less or does not want the poor to eat and the naked to be clothed? Absolutely not. Rather, it is incumbent on us to feed the poor and clothe the naked and it is by our hands that the Lord achieves justice in this world. When it comes to matters of war then, especially in regards to viscious tyrants and brutal dictators such as Saddam Hussein, on what basis do we do nothing and assume that God will take care of it?

The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church states:

"Peace is not merely the absence of war. Nor can it be reduced solely to the
maintenance of a balance of power between enemies. Nor is it brought about by
dictatorship. Instead, it is richly and appropriately called "an enterprise of
justice" (Is. 32: 17). Peace results from that harmony built into human society
by its divine founder and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater
justice."

If we belive that it is justice that God desires in the world and that it is our responsibly to secure a just and ordered society - especially in regards to poverty or any other common social justice issue - then there is no room for pacifism in this belief system as it is constructed for there is no manner in which pacifism achieves this end and history has shown this. It is an age old axiom that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. I am at a lost to identify a single conflict in the world that was resolved by pacifism. In fact, history teaches us that those who resort to pacifism in the midst of evil only allow evil and injustice to thrive and make the situation that much worse. A perfect example is World War II. Weary from the horror of the Great War, many refused to take up arms and in the end it proved to be a monumental failure. Those who thought "it's not our war" in the late 30s realized very quickly how much it became their war after refusing to fight. Pacifism is a luxury for those who have people to fight on their behalf.

I conclude my rambling with the words of St. Augustine:

"We do not seek peace in order to be at war, but we go to war that we may have
peace. Be peaceful, therefore, in warring, so that you may vanquish those whom
you war against, and bring them to the prosperity of peace."

We were not at peace prior to 2003 simply because we did not have any troops on the ground in Iraq. 1.3 million of our brothers and sisters were slaughtered at the hands of Saddam Hussein, he refused to comply with the terms a ceasefire with us written after the Gulf War, and was bribing leading nations of the U.N. with oil to lift sanctions and continue his nuclear and chemical weapons programs. We also know he had weapons of mass destruction, despite how the media tries to distort this fact, because he used them on his own people. The problem was that he could not account for their disappearance, which usually is an indication of either lying, hiding them, or selling them as in the case with the fall of Soviet Russia. There is no definition of "peace" that would include the presence of such evil and I, for one, am glad that America finally decided to do something about it.

Three things are required in order for a war to be just: 1) one must have the authority to declare war, 2) the cause must be just, and 3) there must be right intention. Since Church leaders in vocal opposition to the war cannot seem to identify which of these primary requirements of just war were not met by the United States in their declaration of war against Iraq and since they will say everything but that it was an "unjust" war, it is with good reason that I must respectfully disagree with the opinion of the majority within the Catholic Church. War can be a good and the Iraq war was a just war.


But that's just my opinion and there's plenty more thinking for me to do....