Quote of the Day, and the ABCs of War

"There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a 'just war.'"

I am sure most of you have guessed the author of the above, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, now Bishop of Rome and Pontiff of the Catholic Church.

Benedict has been called an archconservative, though he probably deserves the term less than Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, Prefect under Pius XII, and the much demonized enemy of the "progressive" faction at Vatican II.

Thanks to davemac, who now, alas, posts exclusively on his new 'blog, we can see the continuity in the position of the dogmatic office of the Church: ( Read more... )

"In practice, then, a declaration of war will never be justifiable. A defensive war even should never be undertaken unless a legitimate authority, with whom the decision rests, shall have both certainty of success and very solid proofs that the good accruing to the nation from the war will more than outweigh the untold evils which it will bring on the nation itself, and on the world in general." [Card. Alfredo Ottaviani, Institutiones Juris Publici Ecclesiastici, Vol. 1 (Jus Publicum Internum) Pars I, Titulus iii, art. 3 (Relationes societatum perfectarum in statu conflictus) Principium 2 - Vatican, Polyglot. 3rd Edition (1947) pp. 149-55; English translation: Blackfriars - a monthly review. Edited by the English Dominicans. Published at Blackfriars, St Giles, Oxford, Vol. XXX September 1949 No. 354.]

(I hope the last point, on wars of defense, will be noted by all who are sympathetic to the Iraqi resistance and the Palestinian Intifada.)

ABCs of Peace

"Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty." (Archbishop Oscar Romero) via jewelweed

Here's another snippet of Catholic dogma from the head of the Holy Office before I was born:

"[T]he weapons of charity, justice and truth shall be:

"a. A civil and religious education of nations which so disposes peoples (and hence the rulers chosen from them) to co-operation and to an honourable recognition and interchange of rights and obligations, that class bitterness, race enmity and imperial competition - than which there is no better kindling for wars - are entirely eliminated.
"b. The setting up of an international body whose pronouncements all nations and rules should respect.
"c. The inculcation among peoples of a spirit of brotherliness in accord with gospel principles; as a result each nation will be prepared to place the good of the whole human brotherhood before its own interests, in the manner in which individuals in any republic worthy of the name ought always to contribute to the common good from whatever they themselves possess.
"d. To render impossible totalitarian regimes, for they above all else are the turbulent sources from which wars break out. Moreover, should the representatives of any people (or the people themselves) ever have conclusive indications that their rulers are on the point of undertaking a war in which nothing but blood and ruin will be the lot of the nation, they should and ought to take just measures to overthrow that regime.

-- Card. Alfredo Ottaviani, Institutiones Juris Publici Ecclesiastici

The last point seems to confirm the recent slogan, Regime change begins at home. When government plans war there appears to be not only a right, but a duty of revolution, though only if there is a reasonable chance of success without doing disproportionate harm. That would seem to rule out most forms of revolution, except for the nonviolent -- and even those can have atrocious consequences.

On the new Pope, seraphimsigrist has posted an interesting article here.

I see that the new edition of Benedict's Christianity: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow was published last year, and the Introduction, describing how his thinking has developed since 1967, is on line as a .pdf file here.