{"id":52621,"date":"2014-05-14T08:51:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T15:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=52621"},"modified":"2014-12-29T00:18:31","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T07:18:31","slug":"more-on-the-divide-in-catholic-moral-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/05\/more-on-the-divide-in-catholic-moral-theology.html","title":{"rendered":"More on the Divide in Catholic Moral Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A reader writes:<\/p>\n

The article by George Weigel <\/a>was indeed very troubling, but it\u2019s not the last time that a major Catholic thinker has openly broken with \u2014 or ignored \u2014 the Church\u2019s teaching, in order to advocate for war.<\/p>\n

In February 2014, Robert George co-wrote a piece for National Review in which he advocated for a declaration by Congress authorizing the President to conduct a pre-emptive war against Iran, at his discretion, without further consultation or consent from Congress<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Leaving aside the utter folly of such an idea, and it\u2019s complete incompatibility with international law, there were two really shocking things about this, from a Catholic perspective. <\/p>\n

First, it is appalling that such a prominent Catholic thinker would advocate for such a thing, without even once mentioning Catholic teaching on the morality of war, or indeed any Catholic perspective at all (e.g., Pope John Paul\u2019s and Cardinal Ratzinger\u2019s clear denunciation of the notion of pre-emptive war). <\/p>\n

And second, it is deeply disappointing that no other Catholic thinker called him to task about this. I realize that men like Robert George and George Weigel are widely respected on the Catholic conservative side, and rightly so. But when they\u2019re wrong, and when they go against the teaching of the Church, it is disturbing that no other prominent Catholic thinkers were willing to contradict them.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being willing to defend authentic Catholic teaching in this area!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m happy to contradict them, for all the reasons you mention, and I\u2019m thankful you brought the piece to my attention. I missed it when it came out. Oy. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s fascinating to me that, for all the hubbub on the Right about Obama\u2019s lawlessness (a very just critique), when it comes to the use of violence abroad, the Right is foursquare behind giving Obama draconian powers. Watching Catholics completely ditch just war teaching to act as court prophet for this is just so depressing. Meanwhile, from Iraq to Israel to Saudi Arabia to Egypt, the most concrete and reliable result of our foreign policy is the destruction of the Catholic Church. Brilliant.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader writes: The article by George Weigel was indeed very troubling, but it\u2019s not the last time that a major Catholic thinker has openly broken with \u2014 or ignored \u2014 the Church\u2019s teaching, in order to advocate for war. In February 2014, Robert George co-wrote a piece for National Review in which he advocated […]<\/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":[25],"class_list":["post-52621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-war-without-end-amen"],"yoast_head":"\nMore on the Divide in Catholic Moral Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A reader writes: The article by George Weigel was indeed very troubling, but it's not the last time that a major Catholic thinker has openly broken with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/05\/more-on-the-divide-in-catholic-moral-theology.html\" \/>\n<meta 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