Militant, Part 1

Part 1: Nonviolence vs. The Just-War

Part 2: Justice vs. Mercy
Part 3: The War of Mercy

(Disclaimer: I hope that this discussion can lead all of us to a closer look at Church teachings, and so I have tried to keep my thoughts focused upon the Magisterium’s teachings. It’s my hope that any discussion provoked by this post will maintain the same mindset. Though we can find truth in many places, why not go to its source – Christ and his Church? I’ve avoided scripture because as Catholics, our understanding of scripture should first be firmly grounded within Catholic thought. I’ve avoided specific situations of pacifism because they focus on application before understanding. And finally, I’ve avoided judgmental talk of good and evil, of sins and saints. I’m not out to condemn anyone. I’m out to discover truth.)

Militant, Part 1:
Nonviolence vs. The Just War

I expect that so long as we live in a world fraught with sin and man’s capacity to commit evil and grave injustice, war will “always be with us.” So too, I imagine, the necessity of responding in grave situations with the use of force.
– Christopher Blosser (Ratz Fan Club)

My experiences as a PFC in the 3rd Ranger Battalion and as a Cadet at the United States Military academy (from 2000-2004), changed me forever. In the military, I discovered Jesus Christ, his Church, and the nucleus of the Christian revolution: loving my enemy.

“Loving the enemy is the nucleus of the “Christian revolution,” . . . The revolution of love . . . Here is the newness of the Gospel which silently changes the world! Here is the heroism of the “lowly” who believe in God’s love and spread it, even at the cost of their lives.
– Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus 18FEB2007)

Within the Gospel, I saw a new form of sacrifice, a new form of heroism, a new way of changing the world – dying to save my enemies rather than dying to kill them. I could not love my enemies by killing them. And so my life changed forever.

Ever since seeking and receiving discharge from the military as a conscientious objector, I have had to defend my decision – from family, from friends, from strangers I’ve never met, but more importantly – from myself. How do I deal with the fact that I can open up a Catechism and right there, staring me in the face, is the just-war theory, is the double-effect rule of self-defense, is all that violence which my heart had renounced for Christ?

“Moreover, “legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another’s life, the common good of the family or of the State”. Unfortunately it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life.
– Pope JPII (1985 Encyclical Evangelium Vitae)

Over the past four years, I’ve wrestled with Catholic teachings on war and peace.

“I’d say that we cannot ignore, in the great Christian tradition and in a world marked by sin, any evil aggression that threatens to destroy not only many values, many people, but the image of humanity itself. In this case, defending oneself and others is a duty.”
– Cardinal Ratzinger (2001 Interview, Zenit)

“One is obliged to take into consideration the massive presence of violence in human history. It is the sense of reality in the service of the fundamental concern for justice which forces one to maintain the principle of legitimate defense in this history.”
– Pope JPII (1984 Peace Message)

If defending oneself and others is a duty, if justice demands that we maintain the principle of legitimate defense, then how can I rationally call myself Catholic while renouncing all violence? This helps:

“The most faithful disciples of Christ have been builders of peace, to the point of forgiving their enemies, sometimes even to the point of giving their lives for them. Their example marks the path for a new humanity no longer content with provisional compromises but instead achieving the deepest sort of brotherhood.”
– Pope JPII (1979 Peace Message)

The most faithful disciples of Christ . . . have laid down their lives for their enemies? Are Catholic pacifists part of a new humanity that is no longer content with provisional compromises, provisional compromises like war?

“Those who renounce violence and bloodshed . . .bear witness to evangelical charity
– Catholic Catechism 2306

“One’s neighbor is . . . the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit. One’s neighbor must therefore be loved, even if an enemy, with the same love with which the Lord loves him or her; and for that person’s sake one must be ready for sacrifice, even the ultimate one: to lay down one’s life for the brethren.”
– Pope JPII (1987 Encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis)

Is loving our enemies only something that individuals are called to, or is it a force that must be embraced by all humanity?

“No man or woman of good will can renounce the struggle to overcome evil with good. This fight can be fought effectively only with the weapons of love. When good overcomes evil, love prevails and where love prevails, there peace prevails. . . . love is the only force capable of bringing fulfillment to persons and societies, the only force capable of directing the course of history in the way of goodness and peace.”
– Pope JPII (2005 Peace Message)

On one hand, the Church teaches that only the “weapons of love” (nonviolent sacrifice) can bring the world peace. But on the other hand, as we’ve seen, the Church teaches that justice requires the defense of innocents (the just-war theory). How do I resolve the apparent contradiction between sacrificial love of enemy and the just-war theory?

Michael Denton at For the Greater Glory relates war to the Lord of the Rings to suggest:

It is however necessary to fight Sauron & Saruman; that is never questioned. However, that fighting does not grant peace. It is the destruction of the Ring, which is the destruction of sin, which grants peace . . .

The conclusion is inescapable. The Catholic tradition at all points has held that war can be a necessary but insufficient means to peace.
– Michael Denton (For the Greater Glory)

Essentially, he’s saying that only love completely conquers evil, but that war provides the conditions necessary for us to love – a society of order and justice. In other words, we can’t love if all of us are dead. I have become convinced that Catholic pacifists must be able to answer this assertion. In the past, I’ve had similar discussions about war and peace that have led to the same place:

“military force is regrettably necessary in this case because it buys the time we need to wage successful ideological and spiritual campaigns . . .”
– Patrick O’ Hannigan (Paragraph Farmer)

““love, love, love” is certainly the perfect solution to any problem, but it is never an expedient one”
– The Anchoress (Counter Terrorism w/ Love)

As a Catholic pacifist, my constant refrain is, “peace can only be forged through the loving and nonviolent sacrifice of the cross. Only by loving our enemies, and dying for them, can we defeat evil.” And I’m not alone in this refrain.

“We have need of the God who overcomes on the cross, who does not conquer with violence, but with his love . . . through the nonviolence of his cross.

. . . He does not oppose violence with a stronger violence. He opposes violence precisely with the contrary: with love to the end, his cross. This is God’s humble way of overcoming: With his love — and only thus is it possible — he puts a limit to violence. This is a way of conquering that seems very slow to us, but it is the true way of overcoming evil, of overcoming violence, and we must trust this divine way of overcoming.”
– Pope Benedict XVI (26July2006 Zenit)

While as a Catholic pacifist I’ve drawn great hope from the Pope’s words, my angst over the just-war theory continues to grow. If only love puts a limit to violence, as the Pope says, then how can war – violence – put a limit to violence?

(“Love your enemies”) is rightly considered the “magna carta” of Christian nonviolence; it does not consist in surrendering to evil — as claims a false interpretation of “turn the other cheek” (Luke 6:29) — but in responding to evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21), and thus breaking the chain of injustice.
– Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus 18FEB2007)

If loving our enemies breaks the chain of injustice, why does the church need a theory of violence whose aim is the restoration of justice?

“Christians, even as they strive to resist and prevent every form of warfare, have no hesitation in recalling that, in the name of an elementary requirement of justice, peoples have a right and even a duty to protect their existence and freedom by proportionate means against an unjust aggressor”
– Pope JPII (1982 Peace Message)

Is war necessary for peace?

Peace is the “work of justice” indirectly,
in so far as justice removes the obstacles to peace:
– St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica)

It seems more appropriate to ask, “Is war necessary for justice?”

The just-war theory details the conditions under which warfare can be the instrument of restoring justice to a broken world. It doesn’t claim to achieve peace directly, but rather aims to secure the conditions of justice which would lead to peace. For:

“There is no peace without justice.”
– Pope JPII (Peace Message 2002)

Many pragmatic-pacifists of the Church have claimed that in light of modern warfare, war can no longer fit the conditions of the just-war theory. This claim isn’t outlandish – and exploring this claim is explicitly endorsed by the Church.

The Magisterium condemns “the savagery of war” and asks that war be considered in a new way.[ Gaudium et Spes,80] In fact, “it is hardly possible to imagine that in an atomic era, war could be used as an instrument of justice”.[ John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris]
– Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Vatican.va)

Is war sometimes regrettably necessary for the restoration of order which justice demands? Is war regrettably necessary to remove the obstacles that prevent peace? Can warfare be an instrument of justice?

“To attain the good of peace there must be a clear and conscious acknowledgment that violence is an unacceptable evil and that it never solves problems.”
– Pope JPII (2005 Peace Message)

“Wars, even when they “solve” the problems which cause them, do so only by leaving a wake of victims and destruction which weighs heavily upon ensuing peace negotiations.”
– Pope JPII (1997 Peace Message)

Is war directly necessary for justice and indirectly necessary for peace?

True and lasting peace is more a matter of love than of justice, because the function of justice is merely to do away with obstacles to peace: the injury done or the damage caused. Peace . . . results only from love”
– Pope Pius XI (Encyclical – Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio)

War is meant to restore the justice that peace requires, but only love can truly complete the requirements of peace? As a pacifist, I have stressed love as the solitary solution to evil. But non-pacifists might say, “Wait! Not so fast. You can’t show love if you never exact justice. You can’t love if you are dead! War isn’t the complete answer, but it’s an essential part of the answer. ”

“To apply “love your enemies” in a life and death situation means life for the enemy and death for you . . . if someone were about to shoot the Pope, a reasonable person . . . (would) stop him, by any means necessary. If he survives, he can get spiritual counseling in prison.”
– Gerald Augustinus (The Cafeteria is Closed)

How do I resolve the demands of justice with the call of love? For me, this is the heart of my dilemma. Justice demands that we defend the innocent. Love demands that I give up my life for the enemy. How does one unite love and justice into a coherent unity?

“The pillars of true peace are justice and that form of love which is forgiveness . . .

There is no peace without justice. There is no justice without forgiveness. “
– Pope JPII (2005 Peace Message)

But what does that mean? “Militant, Part 2: Justice vs. Mercy” will explore what seems like a tension between the underlying values of the just-war theory and nonviolence – between Justice and Mercy.