The Challenge of Peace - World Peace Day Message
Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from January 01, 2008
"The Lord look upon you kindly and bring you peace." Numbers 6:25
Pope Benedict's World day of Peace message has for its theme; "The Human Family, A Community of Peace". The Pope writes; "War, with the mourning and destruction it brings, has always been rightly considered a calamity that contrasts with God’s plan. He created everything for existence and, in particular, wants to make a family of the human race.
Honest and straightforward relationships need to be promoted between individual persons and between peoples, thus enabling everyone to cooperate on a just and equal footing. Efforts must also be made to ensure a prudent use of resources and an equitable distribution of wealth.
The family needs a home, a fit environment in which to develop its proper relationships. For the human family, this home is the earth, the environment that God the creator has given us to inhabit with creativity and responsibility. Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man. Rather, it means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests, for future generations also have the right to reap its benefits and to exhibit towards nature the same responsible freedom that we claim for ourselves."
It is clear from the Pope's teaching that the church starts from a presumption against war. He sees the unequal use of the earth's resources as a breeding ground for conflict. He also continues Pope John Paul II's linkage of peace with the Creator and peace with creation itself.
On a day like this it is useful to summarize the ethical teaching of our Church with regard to war and peace. Ever since Vatican II, non-violence has been recognized as a legitimate stand for Catholics. The right to conscientious objection to a particular war or to all wars is a right open to Catholics on the basis of their faith. Another perspective, called the Just War Tradition, has been identified especially with the Catholic church. This approach sets out the conditions when the evil of war may be seen as justified. The US Catholic Bishops lay out both perspectives in their seminal document "The Challenge of Peace", May 3, 1983. It may be helpful to review those conditions with a view to the current war in Iraq.
JUST CAUSE: War is permitted to confront a real and certain danger to life or to secure basic human rights. In the lead up to Iraq was the danger certain? Was it exaggerated?
COMPETENT AUTHORITY: It must be declared by those with responsibility for public order. Do the President and Congress need to act in unison? Is there a role for the UN? Was due weight given to all legitimate authorities?.
COMPARATIVE JUSTICE: Were the values at stake critical enough to override the presumption against war? Do the rights and values involved justify killing? I would add "how much" killing? and how much killing of noncombatants? can they be euphemized as collateral damage? I may add that it is curious that as Catholics we are absolutists about the right to life on other issues, but not in war.
RIGHT INTENTION: War is intended only for the reasons set forth as a just cause. Which of the many rationales offered for the Iraq war was the intended goal?
LAST RESORT: All peaceful alternatives must have been exhausted. There are those who thought other alternatives were not completely explored before war on Iraq was declared. The Vatican asked at the time through a special envoy to refrain from invasion.
PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: This applies to resorting to force in a situation when the outcome will be disproportionate or futile. For those who considered the Iraq action a "slam dunk" there was not enough consideration or follow-through on consequences.
PROPORTIONALITY: The damage inflicted and the costs must be proportionate to the good expected. While there has been an accounting of U.S. casualties, figures vary widely on Iraqi casualties. The financial costs are also difficult to assess, but clearly are immense.
These criteria and other considerations have prompted the US Catholic Bishops to raise "Grave Questions". However our church rarely makes a judgment on morality based on these criteria. We show little of this reluctance on other moral issues. We call for prudential judgment by individuals based on their assessment of the facts and values.
At a Peace Symposium of Catholic Moral theologians at St. Thomas More Cathedral last year, the panel was asked to apply the criteria to the Iraq war. They all agreed that this war did not meet these criteria.
