Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

The Third Guiding Principle. There are goods „which the divine order of peace absolutely
obligates one to respect and to guarantee“, goods such that an offence against them by an aggressor
state is „an attack on the majesty of God.“ These goods are „of such importance for
human social life that their defense against unjust attack is without doubt fully justified.“ 48 It
is not a question here of just any kind of goods such as territorial claims, but of the highest
goods of a nation’s life: the right to life, to justice, to freedom of conscience and of religion,
and the like.
The Fourth Guiding Principle. If a nation is invaded by another state and (perhaps on the basis
of dictatorial ideologies) deprived of its highest goods such as the right to life, the freedom
of conscience, and the freedom of religion, then, as Pope Pius XII said on December 24, l948,
this calls for „the solidarity of the family of nations“, not to play the „simple observer“ in „insensible
neutrality,“ but to come to the aid of the threatened nation. Sanctions should be remembered
here as one possibility.
The Fifth Guiding Principle. „As long as man continues to be that weak, inconstant, and even
evil being he often shows himself to be, defensive weapons will unfortunately be necessary.“
49 The Second Vatican Council declared: „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 defense once every means of peaceful settlement
has been exhausted.“ 50
It is a serious threat to peace to present wars waged in the service of certain ideologies as justified.
„For our part,“ said Lenin, a war is „legitimate and just,“ if it is waged „for socialism,
for the liberation of other nations from the bourgeoisie.“ It would be a great service to peace if
the states of the Marxist world would declare that this legacy of Lenin is no longer valid today.
Nor is the cause of peace served when military science is introduced to school children, a
measure that once again dates back to Lenin. The communist mother, he declared, will say to
her son: „You will soon be big, and you will be given a gun. Take it and learn the military art
well.“ Disarmament is a „fundamental error“, for the socialists could „never oppose revolutionary
wars.“ 51
The Sixth Guiding Principle. Even if many consider the accumulation of weapons as „the
most effective way by which peace of a sort can be maintained between nations“, the arms
race is nevertheless an extraordinarily serious danger for mankind and, in the face of the
enormous sums it devours, an intolerable loss for the poor. 52 Pope John XXIII therefore called
„for a cessation to the arms race. The stockpiles of armaments which have been built up in
various countries must be reduced all round and simultaneously by the parties concerned. Nuclear
weapons must be banned. A general agreement must be reached on a suitable disarmament
program.“ 53
In spite of these exhortations and warnings, the arms race continues. All states speak of peace,
and all states arm themselves. „Until recently,“ Pope John Paul II declared before the
UNESCO in Paris on June 2, l980, „it was still asserted that nuclear weapons were a means of
deterrence that prevents the outbreak of a greater war, and that is probably correct.“ Then,
however, the Pope continued: „But one can ask if that will always remain the case. Nuclear
weapons of whatever kind and size are becoming more perfect year by year. They are also
becoming an arms component in more and more lands. How, then, can one still be sure that
48
Pope Pius XII in his addresses of December 24, 1948; October 3, 1953; October 19, 1953.
49
Address of Pope Paul VI before the Full Assembly of the United Nations in New York on October 8, 1965, in
Dienst am Frieden, 57.
50
„Gaudium et spes,“ 79.
51
Lenin, Ausgewählte Werke (Moscow, 1946), I:876, 878, 881.
52
„Gaudium et spes,“ 81.
53
„Pacem in terris,“ 112.
146