Posted on 08/04/2005 7:21:02 PM PDT by Coleus
US bishops mark anniversary of atomic bombings, condemn ‘total war’
Washington DC, Aug. 04, 2005 (CNA) - The 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki provides an opportunity to reflect on the lessons of the Second World War and to recommit to efforts for a lasting peace built on justice, said the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
“Hiroshima and Nagasaki are permanent reminders to the entire human family of the grave consequences of total war,” said USCCB president Bishop William Skylstad yesterday in a letter to Bishop Augustinus Jun-ichi Nomura, president of the bishops’ conference of Japan.
The bishop of Spokane expressed the U.S. bishops’ solidarity with the Church in Japan and offered prayers for peace and justice.
He also warned that while the threat of global nuclear war has diminished, the threat of terrorism has increased. Terrorist attacks, like the “total war” exemplified by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, result in “indiscriminate destruction and death to civilians and soldiers alike,” he said.
Both crimes are against God and humanity “and merit the same unequivocal condemnation,” Bishop Skylstad wrote, citing Gaudium et Spes.
The memories of World War II and the atomic bombings “compel our Conference and the entire Church to continue working for nuclear non-proliferation and the elimination of nuclear weapons,” he added.
Bishop Skylstad stated that the USCCB will continue to urge the U.S. government to “move away from its reliance on nuclear weapons for security and to commit itself to international non-proliferation and the successful control of nuclear materials in this age of terrorism.”
Bishops, wake up, the dropping of nukes on Japan SAVED millions of American Soldier's lives, ENDED a war, and may have saved the lives of civilians on the mainland. Funny you never mentioned that Democrat FDR developed the Nuclear Bomb and that Democrat Truman used the bomb, twice.
The Japanese government was determined to fight to the end for several reasons. First, the Japanese religion taught that Japan was favored of the gods, and therefore that Japan could not be defeated if its people stood firm. This was reinforced by stories of the hurricane ("kamikaze", or "divine wind") that had defeated a Chinese invasion in historical times. Second, the Japanese grand strategy had always been to make the Allies pay dearly for each advance and wait for the racially inferior Americans and British to weaken in their resolve, and it was still conceivable that it could happen, that they would prefer to offer terms rather than to invade. Third, Japanese culture was very militaristic, and glorified dying for the Emperor far more than surrendering.
At the same time, hundreds of millions of Chinese, Indonesians, Indochinese, and other were languishing under brutal Japanese occupation.
Catholic Just War
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/853217/posts
Yes, that's the ticket. Go away.
A nice display of consequentialist ethics here, Coleus. What do you think of Gaudium et Spes §80? "Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation."
Many of my relatives were in the war and I'm glad their lives were spared by the use of the bomb. Had the bomb not been dropped, many more Americans would have lost their lives. We didn't start the war, we finished it.
Spoken as a good American who believes the story that there was no other way, but alas not spoken as a Catholic conformed to the Magisterial teaching of the Church.
That proves nothing about the morality of such acts, I'm afraid. What do you think about the text of Vatican Council II which I cited?
I grant that this is a really stupid statement from Bishop Skylstad who sadly is talking about policy he does not understand, provides a critique without suggested solutions or course of action, and proves yet again that the USCCB should be abolished. Bishop Skylstad has never had a grasp of just war theory, and he is merely using this occasion to make a political statement that is really void of content or consequence. He should have stuck to an enunciation of Gaudium et Spes on this subject imho.
Like 1-2 million US lives saved? Millions of Japanese lives saved? A booming democracy and friend of freedom in Asia?
Until the Vatican learns the difference between terrorist aggression and limited retaliation, I have no respect for their moral advice regarding war.
The USCCB is almost a schimatic organisation. Me and B16 will continue to ignore them and pray for their conversion to Catholicism.
Good day. Pope Benedict fully supports the teaching of the Church in Gaudium et Spes regarding "total war."
That proves nothing about the morality of such acts, I'm afraid. >>
I wasn't out to prove anything. The concept of war is to win and we did. The aggressors lost and we won. The bombs saved many American lives.
What do you think about the text of Vatican Council II which I cited? >>
Not much.
As a Catholic does it mean nothing to you that the U.S., by means of the atomic bomb, incinerated the Blessed Sacrament, the Body of Christ in the Tabernacle of Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki?
This is the same kind of thinking that morally condemned the Pershing II missile deployments to Europe in the 80s . . . the deployment that combined with SDI to push the Soviet Union beyond its means in the Cold War.
It is occasionally necessary to do something heinous in order to prevent something extraordinarily, substantially more heinous.
Quite so, but such a notion of proportionality is not carte blanche as some are wont to use it. It is rigorous and demanding in application whether it is just war theory, moral theology, or garden variety ethical decisions.
Millions of lives saved at a cost of hundreds of thousands.
The loss of hundreds of thousands of lives is a sadly brutal tragedy, but is an entire order of magnitude less tragic than the alternative.
I cannot condemn it.
by means of the atomic bomb, incinerated the Blessed Sacrament, the Body of Christ in the Tabernacle of Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki? >>
Of course it means something to me. That happened all through WWII in Germany, Italy, France, England, Africa and elsewhere, we were carpet bombing the Germans all over Europe. It was war.
Then, obviously, Gaudium et Spes §80 is wrong. Hiroshima was a legitimate target in 1945. Mecca may one day become a legitimate target. Thankfully, improvements in weapons technology since 1945 may make such a strike unnecessary, provided we can find and kill enough islamonazis to preempt any situation that would give rise to a more generally targeted attack.
Nagasaki was the most Christian city in Japan. The location of so much Catholic persecution, and the Truman administration succeeded in killing more Catholics than all of the persecutions of Catholics in Japan put together. We are not simply talking about war with Shinto Pagans. Were that the case then the bomb would have been dropped on Kyoto. There is so much more to this.
1. WWII was a direct confrontation between the forces of good and evil. Cliche as it seems, God was on the side of the Allies. God (yes, God) made sure that the U.S. obtained the atomic bomb first.
2. Last I checked, God survived the bombing of the Tabernacle of Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki and is reportedly doing fine.
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