Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

). War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
The stockpiles of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons are continually increasing. Even
if only a small circle of specialists are informed about the details, it is nevertheless certain that
the weapons stored thus far are of an enormous number and destructive force. A normal
atomic bomb with a one megaton explosive force, the experts say, tears open a crater ninety
meters deep and l,000 meters in diameter on sandy soil. Shock waves, heat waves, and radioactive
radiation combine into an orgy of annihilation and lead through burns, organ lesions,
and radioactive damage to the terrible death of innumerable people. Whereas the shock wave
of a medium-sized atomic bomb has destructive effects within a radius of ten kilometers, the
shock waves and heat waves of neutron weapons, which are manufactured, not as bombs, but
as grenades or rockets, is relatively small. But the neutron radiation from these short-range
weapons is all the stronger, inflicting an agonizing death, the throes of which last from one to
fourteen days, upon people within a radius of a kilometer.
This threat is growing to unimaginable proportions, since more and more states are coming
into possession of nuclear weapons. It is not only carefully considered and well prepared
plans of attack that could lead to the outbreak of war, but also misunderstandings and irrational
action. Further, one can think only with horror that unscrupulous despots, such as have
appeared again and again in the course of history and have fascinated the masses, could take
possession of nuclear weapons. „Let one only amass the suitable materials, and the demonic
will infallibly take possession of man and run away with him,“ writes C. G. Jung 32
Nuclear ordnance depots are on the surface an expression of elemental political, economic,
and ideological oppositions and interests; at bottom, however, they are a sign that the order of
moral values has been shaken. Peace, said Pope John Paul II in Ireland on September 29,
l979, is the result of the observance „of ethical principles.“ 33 In his message to the World Day
of Peace l98l, the Pope sketched a sinister panorama of violations of the moral order: the
stronger nations outrage the weaker ones. They make them politically, economically, and financially
dependent. A given class or party arrogates the power to itself and oppresses the
others. Terrorists lie in ambush to commit murder and spread fear and panic. Certain mass
media seek to force people into psychological conformity. Wars arise, the Pope continues,
through invasions, through ideological imperialism, through economic exploitation, and
through other forms of injustice. 34 All these things generate deep mistrust among nations and
fear of one another. The arms race does not end.
c) Three Disputable Theses
Recent discussions about war and peace have strayed in directions that do not lead to the desired
end.
First, it does not serve peace if there is no objective grappling with the question under consideration,
but instead a mere arousal of feelings. Such slogans whipping up emotions are:
„Peace at any price!“ „Better red than dead!“ „Destroy whatever destroys you!“ „Create peace
without weapons!“ „Unilateral disarmament!“
On December 8, l967, Pope Paul VI said in his peace message: „One cannot establish peace
on an empty flood of words, which may indeed meet with approval because it addresses a
deep and genuine longing of man, but which can also serve, and unfortunately often has
served, to hide the lack of a genuine spirit of peace and true intentions of peace or even to
mask subversive intentions and actions or partisan interests.“ The Pope warns against the
32
C. G. Jung, Mensch und Seele, selections by J. Jacobi (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1971), 255.
33
Dienst am Frieden, 214.
34
The text of the peace message in the official gazette of the Archdiocese of Cologne, January 15, 1981, n. 18,
pp. 21ff.
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