[presidio9]

This thread is in response to one of my posts. Piranah misunderstood me. I do not dispute that the teachings of Aquinas and Augustine concerning just cause to make war are accepted by the Catholic Church. What I disagree with is the overempahsis that non-Catholics tend to put on Just War Theory, as if it is somehow central to Christian Doctrine, and the Pope is somehow being hypocrital when he speaks against military actions that you (and I, by the way) support. The primary Catholic Doctrine concerning war is that peaceful solutions are always preferrable. You will never hear the Pope or the Vatican come out and say that a war was positive. That would be contrary to the Pope's role as spiritual sheppard to the world's 1 billion Catholics, who live under a variety of political systems. Unless you understand this, you are not equipped to examine Just War Theory in terms of how it relates to Catholic philosophy.

[Desdemona]

You will never hear the Pope or the Vatican come out and say that a war was positive.

True. It's hard to believe, but Pope Pius XII in 1942 condemned the war against Germany. In the same address, he condemned Germany and everything that they were doing. He had no use for the war and in 1943 German priests paid the price. Thousands were murdered in the death camps. Now we know that Pius XII backed off and organized a huge underground rescue effort, but he still preached against war.

Peace is still the preferable option, but realistically, sometimes you just have to stand up and defend with force.

[madprof98]

Very well put. The problem with Church teachings on violence is the tendency of Catholics to take any little "exception" and make it into the rule. Hence, any and every war becomes a just war--and if both parties are at least nominally Christian, it is declared just by both sides, and a Warrior God is invoked by both. The notion that the Church would prefer peace (on the ground that Jesus taught us to prefer peace) is simply disregarded or dismissed as hopelessly unrealistic.