Gordon:
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When President Obama visited Hiroshima on
May 27, 2016, the visit was highly covered by the Catholic Media
In advance of the visit.
Bishop O Oscar Cantú, chairman of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on International Justice and
Peace. said " "Since Saint Pope John XXIII issued
Pacem in Terris in 1963, the Catholic Church has called for
a world free of nuclear weapons. Faith and reason, religion and
science agree on this issue, Nuclear weapons pose a moral
challenge and represent an existential threat that requires
action now."
In
Gaudium et Spes, we are also taught "Any act of
war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities
or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime
against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and
unhesitating condemnation"
However, there appear to be many Catholic who may not concur
with these teachings, especially as there appear to be
increased risks of the potential of other nations using them
against the US. Could you comment on how we should address these
concerns in our development of nuclear weapons |
Father John:
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Catholic
leadership, both at the level of the Vatican and here in the
United States, has taken a firm stand against any use of nuclear
weaponry. This includes the use of such weapons as a
deterrent. This position actually emerges from the classical
just war tradition which has dominated Catholic ethical thinking
on war and peace issues for centuries. The argument here is
that nuclear weapons would produce such intense and widespread
destruction, including the loss of human lives, that would make
it impossible to met a key criterion of that just war tradition,
i.e., proportionality. The damage inflicted by the weapons
would far surpass whatever good might theoretically result from
"winning the war" through the use of such weapons. And if such
weapons are judged as immoral in terms of actual use then we
really cannot employ them in a deterrent capacity if in fact we
would never be justified in using them.
Let me make it
clear, however, that this moral injunction applies only to the
use of nuclear weapons, not at the moment to war as such in
terms of security and survival. There have been strong voices
for totally eliminating war as a legitimate moral option within
parts of the Catholic community, including at the highest
levels. Pope Paul VI's dramatic call for an end to warfare is
but one example. Pope John Paul II clearly was moving against
the notion of warfare, especially during the Gulf War. And more
recently a meeting at the Vatican on the issue of war and peace
co-sponsored by the Vatican's Justice & Peace Committee and
unofficial Catholic peace groups such as
Pax Christi
generated a statement against the continued use of any form of
war as an instrument of peacemaking.
That document
called for an end to Catholic reliance on the just war tradition
as the principal framework for moral decision making. Instead
the Catholic Church should reorient itself towards the promotion
of peace in every situation. Pope Francis himself has shown
some sympathy for this perspective. However, this statement has
also received some pushback. So at this point non-nuclear
warfare remains an available moral option from the Catholic
perspective especially at the governmental level. In a recent
editorial;
The National Catholic Reporter has called upon Pope
Francis to make the question of war and peace the focal point of
the next episcopal synod. |