The Just War Theory
I was recently asked by a parishioner about the Just War Theory. I don’t think I gave the most complete response, so I went back to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and re-read the “official” teaching of the Church on this subject.
Here it is:
“The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy.
At one and the same time:
- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
- there must be serious prospects of success;
- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the ‘just war’ doctrine. The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good” (CCC 2309).
Moral Conscience
This got me thinking about our conscience and its formation. How do we know what to do in one of these difficult situations, how can we make a good moral judgement? So I went over the section in the Catechism on moral conscience. And found this…"Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths." (CCC 1776). Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act…In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law (CCC 1778). We see here that the moral judgments we make are not relative or based on our own thoughts and feelings, they are to be based on objective criteria that come from God. In addition, we have an obligation to discern these criteria if we are to act in a morally good way.
The Catechism states that we have the right to act according to our conscience and should never be forced to act against it (CCC 1782). At the same time we are instructed that we must form our consciences according to the truth and to the word of God and to the authoritative teaching of the Church (CCC 1783, 1785). The obligation to follow our consciences coincides with the equal obligation to form them according to the truth of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. These two obligations cannot be separated.
The Church does acknowledge that it is not always easy to see the proper course of action. Therefore we need to strive to form our consciences according to the truth of God throughout our lives (CCC 1784). And we “must always seriously seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine law. (CCC 1787)
All Rights Reserved | St. Rose of Lima