Exploring Catholic Social Teaching

HANDOUT A
War and Justice
Directions:
Read the essay and then complete the chart on Just War Doctrine.
In addition to our family, our community,
our state, and our nation, we are
members of the human family. International
organizations can help to protect human
rights throughout the world and help
promote Christian solidarity.
Sadly, war between nations, and even
within nations, has been a plague on human
existence since the beginning of human
history. Almost all nations have been born
through conquest. The nuclear arms race,
which began in the 20th century, is a curse
on the human race that threatens millions of
lives and especially hurts the poor. In addition
to the toll war takes on human life, another
evil war brings is the false notion that civil
laws—or even the moral law—do not apply in
wartime. The opposite is true. The moral law
is permanent and always true, even during
armed conflicts. Going to war does not give
governments the right to abridge the rights of
citizens or ignore the moral law.
Because of the suffering, evil, and injustice
war causes, governments must do everything
possible to reasonably avoid war. This does
not mean that all war is immoral. Nations do
have the right to self-defense. Philosopher
St. Thomas Aquinas has guided the Church’s
doctrine on just war.
For a war to be just, all of the following must
be true at the same time:
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“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 modern 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). Because of
the work nations do in gathering intelligence,
it may not be possible for ordinary citizens
to be able to make an informed judgment as
to whether a war is just. This is one of many
reasons it is important that we pray for our
elected leaders.
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