War’s Legitimate Purpose is Peace in Justice
Nobility.org
What Popes, Saints, Doctors and Theologians Think Regarding the Lawfulness of War
The pugnacious and warlike manifestation of
the medieval spirit, as well as the militant character of the Church,
may amaze the radicals of contemporary pacifism, absolutely intolerant
of any and every type of war, for to their ears the expressions “holy
war” and “just war” sound radically contradictory.
It will not be superfluous to place at
their disposition various texts of Roman Pontiffs and leading Catholic
thinkers, so that they may see that no such contradiction exists.
1. War’s Legitimate Purpose is Peace in Justice
According to the entry “Paix et Guerre” in the Dictionnaire Apologétique de la Foi Catholique, the teaching of Saint Augustine regarding peace and war can be condensed into four topics.
…the teaching of Saint Augustine regarding peace and war can be condensed into four topics.
First of all, there are wars that are
just. These are the wars that attempt to repress a censurable enterprise
on the part of an adversary.
But war should be considered an extreme
remedy to which one resorts only after having ascertained the evident
impossibility of otherwise safeguarding the legitimate right. Even if
just, war in fact causes so many and such terrible sufferings—mala tam magna, tam horrenda, tam saeva—that one can only resign oneself to it through an imperious duty.
The legitimate goal of war is not
precisely the victory, with all the satisfactions this entails. Rather,
it is peace in justice, the durable reestablishment of a public order in
which each thing would be restored to its rightful place….
The sufferings of war constitute one of the punishments for sin on this earth…
Finally, the sufferings of war constitute
one of the punishments for sin on this earth. Even when defeat
humiliates those who believed themselves in the right, this painful test
must be seen as the design of God for punishing and purifying the
people of faults for which they must admit their guilt. (Yves de la
Brière [Paris: Gabriel Beauchesne Editeur, 1926], Vol. 3, col. 1260.
Popes and Councils Confirm the Doctrine of Saint Thomas on War
What Popes, Saints, Doctors and Theologians Think Regarding the Lawfulness of War (contd.)
2. Popes and Councils Confirm the Doctrine of Saint Thomas on War
Saint Thomas Aquinas “sets forth the three conditions that legitimize in conscience the use of armed force.”
According to the entry “Paix et Guerre” in the Dictionnaire Apologétique de la Foi Catholique, Saint Thomas Aquinas “sets forth the three conditions that legitimize in conscience the use of armed force.”
1. When the war is brought on not by simple individuals or through
some secondary authority,…but always through the authority that
exercises the highest power in the State;
When
the war is brought on not by simple individuals or through some
secondary authority,…but always through the authority that exercises the
highest power in the State
When
the war is motivated by a just cause; that is to say, when the
adversary is fought because of a proportionate offense that he really
committed
When
the war is conducted with a right intention; that is to say, in
faithfully making every effort to promote good and to avoid evil in all
ways possible
