In fact, it turns out that before you ever get to the bit of the Catechism that deals with Just War doctrine (which, funny thing, says that war is to be an absolute last resort<\/em>, not the first thing you start fantasizing about if you lose an election or somebody suggests that not all is well with American gun culture after a roomful of six year olds is slaughtered) the Church has a whole lot to say about laboring for peace.<\/p>\n No.\u00a0 Really.\u00a0 A *lot*:<\/p>\n <\/p> Peace<\/strong><\/p>\n 2302<\/a><\/strong> By recalling the commandment, \u201cYou shall not kill,\u201d94<\/sup>our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral.<\/p>\n Anger <\/em>is a desire for revenge. \u201cTo desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit,\u201d but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution \u201cto correct vices and maintain justice.\u201d95<\/sup> If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, \u201cEveryone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.\u201d96<\/sup><\/p>\n 2303<\/a><\/strong> Deliberate hatred <\/em>is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. \u201cBut I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.\u201d97<\/sup><\/p>\n 2304<\/a><\/strong> Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is \u201cthe tranquillity of order.\u201d98<\/sup> Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.99<\/sup><\/p>\n 2305<\/a><\/strong> Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ<\/em>, the messianic \u201cPrince of Peace.\u201d100<\/sup> By the blood of his Cross, \u201cin his own person he killed the hostility,\u201d101<\/sup> he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. \u201cHe is our peace.\u201d102<\/sup> He has declared: \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers.\u201d103<\/sup><\/p>\n 2306<\/a><\/strong> Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death.104<\/sup><\/p>\n Avoiding war<\/strong><\/p>\n 2307<\/strong> The fifth commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.105<\/sup><\/p>\n 2308<\/a><\/strong>All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.<\/p>\n However, \u201cas long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.\u201d106<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s only at CCC 2309 you finally arrive at just war doctrine.\u00a0\u00a0And again, funny thing, the Church regards\u00a0war not as something you *get* to do if you can only cook up the right excuses for it, but as something you might\u2013God forbid\u2013have<\/em> to do: like amputating your own leg without\u00a0 anesthesia.<\/p>\n And then, after reluctantly giving some guidelines about what to do if a civilization finds itself in the wretched position of having to saw off its own leg with a rusty butcher knife and stick to bite on for pain relief, it then immediately returns to discussing ways to keep that from happening too often:<\/p>\n 2315<\/strong> The accumulation of arms<\/em> strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see it as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterrence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race<\/em> does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations;111<\/sup> it thwarts the development of peoples. Over-armament<\/em>multiplies reasons for conflict and increases the danger of escalation.<\/p>\n 2316<\/a><\/strong> The production and the sale of arms<\/em>affect the common good of nations and of the international community. Hence public authorities have the right and duty to regulate them.<\/strong> The short-term pursuit of private<\/strong> or collective interests cannot legitimate undertakings that promote violence and conflict among nations and compromise the international juridical order.<\/p>\n <\/a>2317<\/a><\/strong>Injustice, excessive economic or social inequalities, envy, distrust, and pride raging among men and nations constantly threaten peace and cause wars. Everything done to overcome these disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war:<\/p>\n Some of my secessionist nutjob readers have written to remonstrate with me because I put the teaching of the Church concerning peace first, and not the libertarian fantasies of some Catholics\u00a0who leap, with unseemly alacrity, to fantasizing about a Glorious War of Secession.\u00a0 Some think I am very mean for saying that all\u2013<\/em>absolutely all\u2013talk of secession is, in this\u00a0gun soaked culture of death,\u00a0violent fantasizing that is searching for a justification for war.\u00a0 These are the same people who have been telling\u00a0me that we all need to make sure there is no change in our gun laws since we will all need guns when the day comes where we have to do battle with the approaching column of tanks sent by HITLERSTALINMAOBAMA\u00a0to trample our freedom and take away our right to secede.\u00a0 So yeah: secession crazy talk is violent fantasy crazy talk.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same sort of mental rehearsal for violence that Ticking Time Bomb crazy talk was.\u00a0 And as Chief Tyrant and Censor of This Here Blog, I will not have it, just as I will not have people searching for hypothetical situations that might justify abortion on demand or searching for fantasies that might excuse nuking civilian populations or any of the other beloved fetishes of the Culture of Death.\u00a0 Try using your noggins to imagine ways in which violence might actually be the last, rather than the first resort you think of.<\/p>\n And if you cannot be restrained from indulging your fantasies about bloody insurrection (which is what \u201csecession\u201d would mean in the real world of the American culture), then do it elsewhere.\u00a0 I asked people to respect this wish yesterday and a number of them ignored me.\u00a0 Now, they find themselves unable to post here.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try me on this, or you will discover the same thing as people who want to make my blog a platform for abortion apologetics, war crimes, and other forms of forms of murder: because that is what armed insurrection (aka \u201csecession\u201d) would inevitably mean.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In fact, it turns out that before you ever get to the bit of the Catechism that deals with Just War doctrine (which, funny thing, says that war is to be an absolute last resort, not the first thing you start fantasizing about if you lose an election or somebody suggests that not all is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[107,346,175,59],"class_list":["post-41479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blessed-are-the-peacemakers","tag-fantasy-courage-and-real-evil","tag-fearmongers-vs-the-god-of-peace","tag-weapons-grade-crazy"],"yoast_head":"\nInsofar as men are sinners, the threat of war hangs over them and will so continue until Christ comes again; but insofar as they can vanquish sin by coming together in charity, violence itself will be vanquished and these words will be fulfilled: \u201cthey shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.\u201d<\/dl>\n<\/blockquote>\n