According to a “first of its kind” Vatican conference co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the international Catholic peace organization Pax Christi there is no such thing as a “just war.” The participants in this conference go further than this and say that the Catholic Church’s “Just War” doctrine developed by theologians from as far back as St. Augustine must be rejected. They argue that the Church’s just war doctrine has too often been used to justify unjust wars and they go on to argue that the “powerful capabilities of modern weapons and evidence of the effectiveness of nonviolent campaigns make it [just war doctrine] outdated.” The hope of the conference attendees is that Pope Francis will consider writing an encyclical or some other “major teaching document” that will reorient the Church’s teaching on just war doctrine.
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Pax Christi International
Pax Christi USA
What examples of (successful) nonviolent campaigns are they citing? And how many of those took place in countries where those ruling did not have some remnant of Christian conscience or were otherwise unwilling to do what it takes to suppress those movements?
No comments:
Post a Comment