FAUSTO GOMEZ OP
One challenging question: May we speak today of a just war?
In the past, and up to the twentieth century, wars seemed to be inevitable and the application of the Just War Theory, an ethical demand – or excuse – to go to war and to defend wars was in practice. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in USA, the Just War Theory was “resurrected” again. Then President George W. Bush and other world leaders used the Just War Theory to justify the war against terrorism and other wars. Pope John Paul II reacted: It cannot be applied!
THE ‘JUST WAR’ THEORY
War is understood as an armed conflict between armies of “enemy” States. There are different kinds of war. We point out here two distinct categories: offensive war(unprovoked war against another State) and defensive war (war against an unjust aggressor).
The expression “just war” was coined by Aristotle and the Greek philosophers. The Just War Theory was proposed and defended by the two greatest theologians: St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. The Angelic Doctor asked himself (STh II-II, 40): Is it always a sin to wage war? Generally, it is inhuman and unchristian to wage war, which is a vice against charity or love that is essentially peaceful. Exceptionally, war can be licit – ethical and justifiable -, if it fulfills three rigorous conditions: it is called by public authority; there is a just cause, and the intention is right – for the sake of justice and peace.
The most difficult condition to carry out is the second: going to war for a just cause,whichrequires the fulfillment of four strict rules: (1) The presence of grave injustice obstinately pursued; (2) The real need to make recourse to war to obtain justice; (3) Proportion between the gravity of the injustice and the calamities to ensue from the war (the principle of “double effect” and “the lesser evil”); (4) A realistic probability of victory. Obviously, St. Thomas’ doctrine on the just war, within the treatise of charity, is ordered to avoid wars. Why? Because it is almost impossible to fulfill the strict conditions ad bellum (going to war) and in bello (during war). The Catechism of the Catholic Churchspeaks of war within the fifth commandment: Thou shall not kill. It presents the teaching of the Church, particularly the conditions for a just war from and after Vatican II and defends a truly defensive war (cf. CCC 2307-2317).
NO TO WAR, ALWAYS?
The ancient Greeks used to say: “The war is evil because it makes more evil people than those that are killed.” Jesus’ Kingdom is not a kingdom imposed by the force of arms (Jn 18:36). Jesus to Peter: “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Mt 26:52). With these words – Origen commented in Contra Celsum – Jesus disarmed all Christians.
Vatican II elucidates the meaning of true peace (GS 77-82). Peace is “more than the absence of war.” It is the fruit of justice and love. Without these, particularly love of neighbour, animosity and hatred will not cease and will continue causing wars. Paul VI cried out (October 4, 1965) from the podium of the United Nations in New York: “No more war! War never again! Peace, it is peace which must guide the destinies of peoples and all mankind.” Pope Benedict XVI says that peace that “is not as the mere absence of war, but a harmonious coexistence of individual citizens within a society governed by justice, one in which the good is also achieved, to the extent possible, for each of them” (Message, January 1, 2006).
Vatican II condemns the savagery of war. It is against the crimes of war,”against “total war.” In the context of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the enormous growing possibility of new technologies,” there is the grave danger of not using them wisely (Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti 261).
The Second Vatican Council affirms that the arms race is immoral, “an utterly treacherous trap for humanity” that harms the poor immensely. Paul VI deplores deterrence: “the armament race is an intolerable scandal.” Pope John XXIII rejects deterrence and proposes a progressive disarmament. Pope Francis firmly condemns the arms race: to pile up nuclear weapons is an evil, an evil for all. International peace and stability cannot be based on a false sense of security, on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or on simply maintaining a balance of power” (FT 262).
“The age-old slavery of war” is not a good means to peace, although there might be a legitimate defensive war as a last resort. A defensive war must respect “the permanent binding force of universal natural law and its all-embracing principles” (GS 73). John Paul II spoke of the right to defend oneself – personally and collectively. This right must be exercised while respecting moral and legal limits in the choice of ends and means.” These limits, however, are often sidelined. Pope Francis frowns on “the possibility of legitimate defense by means of military force,” and thinks that “preventive attacks or acts of war entail “evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.” He underlines, moreover, “the injustice of collateral damage” that accepts unjustly the deaths of civilians (FT 258; cf. CCC 2309).
Conscientious objectors of war, moreover, must be respected as long as they are willing to serve the human community with other kinds of social service.
Pope Francis proves convincingly that “the traditional concept of just war can no longer be upheld”: it cannot be ethically and theologically applied nowadays (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 258).Certainly, war is a most devastating virus. It implies “the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment.” Indeed, “Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil.“We can no longer think of war as a solution, because its risks will probably always be greater than its supposed benefits… Never again war!” (FT 261)
May we speak today of a just war? Respectfully, no. May legitimate collective defense be carried out justly as a last resort? Perhaps. But, why the last resort? Why not try again and again by peaceful means like more dialogue, more negotiations, credible and respected intermediaries, etc.?
War continues unabated – and growing in number. In this context, is it unrealistic to speak against war today? Quite the contrary. We need to talk and to oppose war. As Vatican II proclaims, “It is our clear duty to strain every muscle as we work for the time when all wars can be completely outlawed by international consent.”
NO MORE WARS! May the weapons be silent. May the cry of peace, of the people, of the poor, of the elderly, of children be heard. There is only one side for the believers: the side of peace (Pope Francis, Angelus, October 25, 2023).
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