Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

d). Ten Guiding Principles
The First Guiding Principle. War is not a „suitable and appropriate means of resolving international
controversies.“ Just as little are „prestige“ and „national honor“ a just cause for
war. 40 It contradicts the Christian message of peace to interpret war as a „proving of freedom
and greatness“, as the „original means of getting things going and clearing out stagnation“, 41
or as the „wonderful trinity“ of blind hate, ill-tempered twists of fate, and political calculation,
„without there being any other barriers than those of the intrinsic counterweights.“ 42
The Second Guiding Principle. „Peace is not merely the absence of war.“ It is rather the fruit
of that order stemming from God „and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater justice.“
And even more, it is „the fruit of love, which goes beyond what justice can provide.“ 43
This understanding of peace presupposes a change of consciousness that will lead to a change
of conditions. Recent history shows that this is possible. Obsessive belief in witches, slavery,
and colonial rule have been progressively eliminated in the same way.
The way to a change of consciousness must be concrete. Here are a few indications:
From childhood on, man must personally experience and become practiced in being reconciled,
making peace, conciliating, and forgiving, and do so in the family, at play, in sports,
and so on. The great peace in the world begins with the small peace at home.
We must speak the language of peace. The power of words and images in the formation of
public opinion and thus on the attitude to peace can hardly be overestimated today. History
teaches that agitation and hate propaganda have not infrequently driven a people to war. Pope
John Paul II warned in his peace message of December 8, l978 against the „seduction of language.“
If one expresses everything through the concepts of „power relations, group and class
wars, and friend-foe schemata“, one is stirring up hate. 44
Of great importance for the creation of a consciousness of peace is the abandonment of every
form of violence and terror among people. Violence and terror create a consciousness of war.
Terrorism is nothing new. In the second half of the nineteenth century, a dangerous power
threatened the order of states. Czar Alexander II of Russia, King Umberto of Italy, King
Charles of Portugal, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, two Spanish prime ministers, and a French
prime minister fell victim to it. In l869, Bakunin and Netshajev published a Revolutionary
Catechism in which it says: „The revolutionary is a consecrated man. He is merciless against
the state in general and the whole civilized class of society, and he should expect just as little
grace for himself. Between him and society, there reigns a life and death battle, whether open
or hidden, but without end or reconciliation. He must become accustomed to torture.“ 45
A general consciousness of peace will arise only when the rights of all nations „to existence,
to freedom, to independence, to their own culture, and to a genuine development“ are assured
and when misery and hunger have everywhere been overcome. 46 The starving nations of the
Third World expect a sign from Christians above all. If this sign fails to appear, the danger
threatens that, as Pope Paul VI said, „would-be saviors“ will incite the masses through „alluring
and deceitful promises“ and deliver them up to „totalitarian ideologies.“ 47
40 Pope Pius XII, Christmas address of December 24, 1948.
41 Herman Stegemann, Der Krieg. Sein Wesen und Seine Wandlung (Stuttgart-Berlin, 1939), I:3.
42 Carl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege, 4, 20f.
43 „Gaudium et spes,“ 78.
44 Dienst am Frieden, 191.
45 Theodor Schieder, Propyläengeschichte Europas. Staatensystem als Vormacht der Welt 1848 bis 1918 (Frank-
furt-Berlin-Vienna, 1977), 206.
46 Pope John Paul II in his homily at the mass at the Birkenau concentration camp on June 7, 1979, in Dienst am
Frieden, 211.
47 Pope Paul VI, „Populorum progressio,“ 11.
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