1. Self-Preservation is not the highest virtue.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nDitto for the defense of others. \u00a0In the case of legitimate self-defense or protection of others, bad guys get the upper hand: It is not moral to preemptively kill someone on account of how they are probably going to be dangerous to somebody. \u00a0You have to actually be under attack before you resort to lethal force.<\/p>\n
2. There\u2019s a time and place for martyrdom.<\/strong><\/p>\nOne may choose to boldly preach before the emperor, at risk of certain death, rather than to flee the persecution.<\/p>\n
3. One may choose out of simple prudence to go about unarmed.<\/strong><\/p>\nEven knowing that it may result in death to oneself and others, a person might choose, virtuously, to forgo assorted means of self-preservation out of a prudent determination that the unintended consequences would be disproportionate to the good being done.<\/p>\n
You may choose not to take the medicine or undergo the surgery that could save your life, but which poses risks out of proportion to the benefit received. \u00a0Likewise, you may choose not to carry the weapon that is the only way you could hope to survive a criminal attack, out of a prudent decision that it poses risks out of proportion to the benefit received.<\/p>\n
4. One should always resort first and preeminently to non-lethal means to resolve conflict.<\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s no, \u201cAm I allowed to kill yet?\u201d thinking to legitimate self-defense. \u00a0If you can run, run. \u00a0If you can defuse the situation, defuse the situation. \u00a0If it\u2019s clear that all he wants is your wallet, for goodness sake hand over the wallet.<\/p>\n
(It\u2019s not always clear whether he just wants your wallet, or if he\u2019s in the process of killing you. \u00a0 The catechism allows for the reality that you might unwittingly over-defend yourself in care for your own life. \u00a0But if it does happen to be that clear, there you are. \u00a0Don\u2019t kill someone over mere money.)<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Having set all that out as the framework in which we are operating, now my cultural biases get to go to work. \u00a0We\u2019re going to skip over pure self-defense, because I\u2019m not going to quibble about whether priests ought to just choose martyrdom every time. \u00a0Let\u2019s move straight to the protection of innocent people in our care.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the thing:<\/p>\n
There are a very few situations, but they are real situations, in which one must choose whether to use lethal force against an enemy or to allow an innocent person to suffer and die.<\/p>\n
And in these few and rare situations, I am not at all concerned about whether this turns a priest into a \u201ckiller\u201d. \u00a0I am concerned about whether the priest is a decent man.<\/p>\n
Let me put it more vividly: \u00a0If Father Virtuous has no choice but to kill the bad guy or let the bad guy rape, torture, and kill my daughter, Father V. dammed well better kill the bad guy.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd it\u2019s not just my daughter. \u00a0Your daughter. \u00a0The parish secretary. The kids in religious ed. \u00a0The old guys lighting candles after daily Mass.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no \u201cI\u2019m a priest\u201d clause that sets aside one\u2019s grave obligation to protect the innocent.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Redneck Catholic 101, I guess.<\/p>\n
Redneck Catholic 102 is this: Having accepted that priests are sometimes duty-bound to use lethal force, the rest of the question is just one of prudence.<\/p>\n
At which point I charitably assume that Father Virtuous is on the job making his own, imperfect but prayerfully-informed decisions about what the prudent course of action is, given his particular circumstances.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>
\n<\/p>
Artwork: Lucas Cranach the Elder [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow-up to yesterday\u2019s post, in which I did not really answer Frank Weather\u2019s argument against priests packing heat. \u00a0His case is a strong one, and I didn\u2019t think I had a firm opinion about it. All I thought I had to bring to the table was a set of cultural biases. \u00a0On further reflection, let […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-qa","category-human-rights"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"File:Lucas](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Lucas_Cranach_d.%C3%84._-_Der_Feilitzscher_Altar_(geschlossen).jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n