Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

42 BRIAN V. JOHNSTONE
cause for which war might be fought, 12 and this has become the
accepted official teaching of the Church. The Second Vatican
Council (1965) affirmed that: “As long as the danger of war
remains and there is no competent and sufficiently powerful
authority at the international level, governments cannot be
denied the right to legitimate defence once every means of
peaceful settlement has been exhausted.” 13
This teaching implies an acceptance of the JWD, in the form
of a doctrine of just defence. This statement has provided the
basis for a number of the comments made by some Church leaders,
on the war in Afghanistan. The attack of September 11 th and
the implied threat of similar attacks in the future, judged in
terms of the doctrine, clearly provides a just cause for defensive
war. The issue is relatively much clearer than was the case with
the Gulf War of 1990-91. 14 Indeed, the attack on the U.S.A. clearly
violated all the criteria of the JWD. However, while a war of
defence may be justified in principle, a definitive judgment on
the morality of initiating the war would still require the test of
proportionality: is war proportionate to the just end of selfdefence,
or should other methods be preferred, such as those
provided by international law or sanctions? 15
The proportionality requirement presents special difficulties
for the upholders of the JWD. Furthermore, many of those who
condemn war completely, do not do so simply on the basis of
abstract principle, but because they have concluded from historical
evidence that war can never, in reality, be a proportionate
means. Hence, in this article, particular attention will be given
to this criterion, both in reference to the decision to initiate war,
and to the conduct of particular operations during that war.
WILLIAM V. O’BRIEN, The Conduct of Just and Limited War (New York: Praeger,
1981) 23.
12 JOHN COURTNEY MURRAY, S.J. “War as a Moral Problem,” in Idem., We
Hold These Truths (London: Sheed and Ward, 1960) 258.
13 Gaudium et Spes, # 79.
14 Cf. JOHN LANGAN, S.J. “The Just-War Theory After the Gulf War,”
Theological Studies 53 (1992) 95-112.
15 Cf. “A Just War,” Editorial, America, Oct. 8, 2001, URL
http://www.americapress.org/terror.htm.