Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

the employment of nuclear weapons, even as a means of national defense or in limited warfare,
will not lead to an unavoidable escalation and thus on a scale of destruction that mankind
cannot imagine or consent to either?“ 54 The balance of fear is in fact dangerous and the socalled
crisis-stability fragile.
The Seventh Guiding Principle. Even if complete disarmament does not seem feasible at the
time, every attempt must still be made gradually to limit arms everywhere and simultaneously
by international treaties and to dismantle stockpiles of weapons. Herwig Büchele considers
„equally balanced and simultaneous disarmament“ impossible and suggests instead „advance
unilateral concessions“, in the case of which an aggressor state would still have to reckon with
the fact that „upon its first strike the second strike would also follow.“ Thus, an advance unilateral
concession does not exclude the „worst case“ of nuclear war. The dilemma remains. 55
The goal must be to exclude the first strike which would annihilate millions of human lives.
The demand for universal disarmament stands in an elemental tension to the necessity of selfdefense.
It is necessary to recognize and endure this tension. Experience teaches that aggressors
usually attack when they consider the risk to be slight. That holds for the outbreak of the
Second World War as well as for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. One can pose the hypothetical
question whether forty years ago an equalization of arms would not have prevented
the Second World War and thus the death of millions. The Church does not grow tired of employing
its moral authority in public for a comprehensive guarantee of peace in the world. It
adjures governments to manifest the will to peace through a universal and simultaneous disarmament.
It cannot, of course, force governments to do so.
The Eighth Guiding Principle. In the realm of guaranteeing peace, there are questions in
which Christians can come „with equal sincerity“ to different judgments. 56 Rearmament and
the export of weapons belong to these questions. The Second Vatican Council expresses the
warning that „no one is allowed in the aforementioned situations to appropriate the Church’s
authority for his opinion. They should always try to enlighten one another through honest discussion,
preserving mutual charity and caring above all for the common good.“ 57 It is unjust
to defame those who reject unilateral disarmament. The objection that soldiers do not act out
of morally motivated insight also contradicts the Second Vatican Council, which has declared:
„Those who are pledged to the service of their country as members of its armed forces should
regard themselves as agents of security and freedom on behalf of their people. As long as they
fulfill this role properly, they are making a genuine contribution to the establishment of
peace.“ 58 In view of the complicated nature of the modern problem of war, it is, of course,
possible that Christians come to the conviction that they must „for reasons of conscience refuse
to bear arms.“ The state should give legal recognition to this morally motivated conscientious
objection out of respect for the freedom of conscience. 59
The Ninth Guiding Principle. Since a war that is waged with modern scientific weapons (CBR
war) releases „massive and indiscriminate destruction far exceeding the bounds of legitimate
defense,“ the question of war must be approached with „an entirely new attitude.“ By making
its own „the condemnations of total war already pronounced by recent Popes“, the Second
Vatican Council therefore declared: „Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction
of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and
man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation.“ 60 Pope Paul VI repeated
54 Text in Dienst am Frieden, 241-242.
55 Herwig Büchele, S. J., „Bergpredigt und Gewaltfreiheit,“ in Stimmen der Zeit 199/106 (1981):638ff.
56
„Gaudium et spes,“ 43.
57
Ibid.
58
Ibid., 79.
59
Ibid.
60
Ibid., 80.
147