Pope Warns That War Could Bring 'Religious Catastrophe'

Washington Post ^ | March 30, 2003 | Reuters

[DED]

VATICAN CITY, March 29 -- Pope John Paul II said today he hoped that the human tragedy of the war in Iraq would not set Christians and Muslims against each other and spark "a religious catastrophe."

"War must never be allowed to divide world religions," he told visiting Roman Catholic bishops from Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. The pope said good inter-religious relations were important "at this moment of heightened tension in the entire world community."

The pope is opposed to the war in Iraq and led a Vatican diplomatic campaign to avert it. The Iraq conflict has put the Vatican at odds with the Bush administration because the pope has refused to bless the conflict as a "just war."

In the months before the Iraq war began, John Paul lobbied in favor of a negotiated solution. He has said there is no legal or moral justification for the military action, and has worried about how it could affect relations between Christians and Muslims.

[DED]

The Principals of a Just War were written by Catholics many years back and were restated in 1993 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Is the Pope ignoring the principals established by the Cardinals? Are we fighting a just war? I think intelligent people can debate a few of these points, but (as Tommy Franks seems fond of saying), there is no doubt about the final outcome.

Regarding his comments about allowing war to divide world religions - are we in danger of doing that, or has the Islamic world already done it?

The principals are restated below:

Just Cause: force may be used only to correct a grave, public evil, i.e., aggression or massive violation of the basic rights of whole populations.

Comparative Justice: while there may be rights and wrongs on all sides of a conflict, to override the presumption against the use of force the injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh that suffered by the other.

Legitimate Authority: only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force or wage war.

Right Intention: force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose.

Probability of Success: arms may not be used in a futile cause or in a case where disproportionate measures are required to achieve success.

Proportionality: the overall destruction expected from the use of force must be outweighed by the good to be achieved.

Second, the just-war tradition seeks also to curb the violence of war through restraint on armed combat between the contending parties by imposing the following moral standards (jus in bello) for the conduct of armed conflict.

Last Resort: force may be used only after all peaceful alternatives have been seriously tried and exhausted.

Noncombatant Immunity: civilians may not be the object of direct attack, and military personnel must take due care to avoid and minimize indirect harm to civilians.

Proportionality: in the conduct of hostilities, efforts must be made to attain military objectives with no more force than is militarily necessary and to avoid disproportionate collateral damage to civilian life and property.

[ex-snook]

Did you search before you posted this?

[Russell Scott]

Just get in your Popemobile and go wave. Let us do the real Christian work. Liberating the people of Iraq from a brutal, demonic regime.

[freedom9]

Cheek turning time is over

Amos 6
3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; . . .

[Kevin Curry]

. . . brutal, demonic regime.

"Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Apparently the Vatican believes Saddam is just misunderstood.

[tbpiper]

Apparently the Vatican believes Saddam is just misunderstood.

So much for papal infallibility.

[John Valentine]

"War must never be allowed to divide world religions," he told visiting Roman Catholic bishops from Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. The pope said good inter-religious relations were important "at this moment of heightened tension in the entire world community."

The man may be Pope, but he is woefully ignorant and mal-informed on the nature of Islam, and the central role of 'jihad' in that religion.

Islam is a religion of war, not a religion of peace as we often heard it inaccurately described. 'Islam' means submission, not peace, and it is a form of submission that demand relinquishment of the critical mental faculty that makes us human. Islam's central reason for being is to extend it's hegemony to the entire planet, preminiently through thuse of war.

It seems to me that in his dotage,.this Pope is hoping that if he places his head deeply enough in the sand, he won't notice the pain that is surely heading the way of al of Christendom, to say nothing of Buddhist and secular lands.

If we don't act, eventually we or our children will be Muslims or dhimmis or dead.

[Kevin Curry]

Jeremiah 6:13-14 "For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace."

I am convinced the Pope is, at his core, a profoundly decent if misguided (on this issue) man.

Some of the snakes that surround and advise him at the Vatican are another story entirely.

[CyberAnt]

I think it's so great for the Pope to bring this up and broadcast it all over the world. [sarcasm]

[wastoute]

What's more, he seems to be suggesting that his Boss (that would be Jesus) left him instructions to "get along with the worlds other religions. The last time I looked He said, "I am THE way, THE truth, and THE light, NO MAN COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME." That would seem to pretty explicitly exclude "coooperating with other religions" to me. Especially one that believes that lying to a non believer is an acceptable practive, killing non-believers is praised, and I won't even start on the pedophilia, polygamy deal.

[Pistias]

force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose

What other purpose could there be?

[Jhoffa_]

Apparently the Vatican believes Saddam is just misunderstood.

The Vatican (and others) seem to have a deliberate blind spot here.

If Saddam would have disarmed, as he promised and stuck to the deal he made himself then this would all be history.

Right now Clinton would be polishing his Nobel Peace Prize and Saddam would be sanction free and busily (if covertly) rebuilding his arsenal.

There's nothing pre-emptive about this war and we are not the agressors. This isn't Gulf War 2, this is Gulf War 1, part 3.

I thought that would be obvious to everyone. Guess I was mistaken.

[ex-snook]

It would help if someone could show the Pope and the world's major nations what threat Saddam is since losing the war some dozen years ago. He has been bombed some 40,000 times without a plane being lost, been blockaded, inspected, and no-fly zoned. Recitations of his threat to the United States need something more current that a dozen years ago.

The Pope is saying that we are in the process of converting Bush's "Islam is a religion of peace" into a perpetual holy war for perpetual peace.

If Bush is right that Saddam is our threat then we will eliminate all the airport and other security precautions and get back to fixing the economy. If the Pope is right, we will keep them. We won't have long to wait to find out.

[Arpege92]

With all due respect to the Pope, why isn't he concerned about the muslim terrorists who are bombing the Jews in Israel. It's not the Christians or the Jews who are killing people in the name of Allah!

[laz17]

The Pope no longer makes any pretense of spreading the Gospel, which is his responsibility. Instead, he would rather appease and make nice with all the satanic forces that are waging war against the Gospel. He wrings his hands and worries about a clash between religions, all the while failing to realize that this clash is ALREADY taking place and that islam has declared jihad against all "infidels". Islam has ALREADY declared war, and the Pope wants us not to fight back. If we were to follow his lead, we would all be converted to islam by the sword, or killed for refusing to submit.

Worthless is the shepherd who leads his sheep to the slaughter! The only true shepherd is Christ. His earthly respresentative has abdicated his position. He no longer leads the true Church. Only Christ does.

[logic101.net]

Nice response!

Although this was hit on in the main post, I want to add to it. It is the radical muslums that have been trying to drive a wedge between the world's religions, and has been for generations. How long after the creation of Israel did it take for radical muslums to attempt genocide? Hours!

And also does the pope feel that the lives of the Iraqi people are of no value? Does he feel that they should not be allowed to state their views? Does he feel that they should live forever in fear of a brutal, genocidal regeme? Does he have no compassion? Or is he just anti-Bush? Or senile?


MARK A SITY
http://www.logic101.net/

[Cicero]

This was already posted. Consider the source. The Washington Post would like nothing better than to start a war between conservative Protestants and Catholics.

The Pope HAS NOT said that this is an unjust war, either now or earlier. He is trying to stave off a jihad against the millions of Christian--both Protestant and Catholic--who have the ill fortune to live in muslim-dominated countries. What on earth is wrong with that?

Please. This is the same kind of liberal spinning that the the press indulged in when Bush visited Bob Jones University, and McCain tried to get the Catholics angry with Protestants. Don't let yourselves be manipulated so easily.

[Rome2000]

The Pope is senile and the Catholic Church should be ashamed.

The Jihadists have declared holy war on western civilization, but the church never met a nation of Jew killers it didn't make excuses for.