Dear Parishioners,      

As long as we’re thinking about hot/political issues, let me bring up one more.  A recent article by neighboring S. F. Bishop Robert W. McElroy entitled “War Without End” observes that the conflict in Afghanistan now stands as the longest war in American history, notes why major warfare has become an “ongoing way of life” and repeats Catholic teaching on War and Peace.
           
“An ongoing way of life” - the U.S. has now achieved the capacity to wage war over many years with little burden to our economy or to the average citizen.  Three factors make this possible: 1) the sheer size of the American economy and its ability to float credit has made costs of major wars a relatively small blip in overall government expenditures; 2) modern technology minimizes American casualties and maximizes the damage done; 3) the existence of a professional army limits the layers of American society that need to suffer. 

As one historian notes: “the army is at war but the country is not.”  Leaders can now resort to force and war knowing that civil society will not be deeply disturbed.
           
Catholic teaching on War and Peace - at the same time that America has come to a new acceptance of war as an ongoing part of life, the Universal Church has grown more skeptical of the legitimacy of warfare.  As Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict has written “given the new weapons that make possible destruction that goes beyond the combatant group, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a 'just war'!”  Bishop Mc Elroy lists four thought provoking statements: 1. “Catholic doctrine does not permit war (or force of arms) to democratize other countries.  Only major aggression counts in Catholic moral teaching as a just cause for war; 2. Catholic doctrine does not permit the continuation of warfare in order to avoid the damage that will come to one’s reputation from defeat; 3. Catholic doctrine does not permit the use of weapons and tactics that eviscerate the distinction between combatants and civilians; 4. Catholic doctrine does not permit continuation of war based on a mere wisp of hope”.  He concludes with, “We the people need to recognize that good intentions do not constitute a just cause for war.  If we do not, we may raise a whole generation of children who have never known an America at peace.  And we may create a world that turns to war as easily as we do.”

Your Pastor,
Brian T. Joyce