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To: jafojeffsurf

Maybe it’s time for me to post something about “Just War”!


6 posted on 09/03/2010 10:09:10 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

Just got done reading it on that web site you had, Good Info on there. Thanks

Conditions for a Just War. St. Augustine was the first early Christian writer to give extensive attention to the conditions that would justify war. He said war may be undertaken for the good of society. His basic reason was that armed force is permitted when the purpose is to attain peace.

Since the sixteenth century, Catholic thinking, approved by Church authority, has come to identify the following reasons for a just war.

*
It must be on the authority of the sovereign, that is, of the one (or ones) having supreme jurisdiction in the State.

*
There must be a just cause: For example, the independence or vital possessions of the State are gravely threatened.

*
Other means short of war have been sincerely tried but have failed.

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The belligerents must have a valid purpose, namely the advancement of some moral good or the avoidance of some evil.

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The war must be waged by proper means, since even a morally good end may not be sought by using means that are morally bad.

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There must be due proportion between the foreseeable benefits and the known evils that accompany war.

The rise of modern warfare with its massive destruction and the availability of nuclear weapons have made the Church speak out very plainly on the morality of war.

Popes Benedict XV, Pius XI, and Pius XII wrote extensively and urgently before and during the First and Second World Wars. Then the Second Vatican Council made the longest declaration on the subject of any ecumenical council in the Church’s history.

Their teaching may be briefly stated in a series of moral principles:

1.
Although war is not of its very nature morally evil, nuclear war is very difficult to justify in practice.

2.
War that tends indiscriminately to destroy entire cities or wide areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man.

3.
Those conscripted into military service may assume that their nation is right and engage in conflict.

4.
Volunteers should seriously inquire whether their country’s cause is a just one before they enter military service.

No single issue of modern life has been more urgently pleaded for than peace among nations. But peace between people depends on peace within people. Peace within persons is possible only if their wills are conformed to the will of God. Each individual contributes to world peace to the extent that he or she cooperates with divine grace in the depths of his own soul.

http://www.therealpresence.org/essentials/commandments/acc29.htm


7 posted on 09/03/2010 10:42:16 AM PDT by jafojeffsurf ( Return to the Constitution.)
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