Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE WAR IN IRAQ 313of the “tranquilitas ordinis” of St. Augustine. 10 However, the Popeseems to be thinking in terms of a moving process, rather thana static order. He also seems to envision more than the minimumjustice as conceived by St. Augustine. His language mayseem utopian in its demands, but he is expressing the urgency ofthe good of peace, as engendering a moral imperative. Thisimperative is then linked to the historically available means forpromoting peace. As has been noted above, the Pope has a measuredconfidence that these means can be effective.The goal of the human project is peace, and as the Pope hasexplained, for this, justice alone, considering the fragility andsinfulness of human beings, is not sufficient. It must be completedby forgiveness, a fruit of charity. Thus, insofar as the “justwar theory” still has a role in the Pope’s thinking, it must be integratedinto a context which includes justice, forgiveness andcharity. This is, of course, in a way, a return to the thinking of St.Thomas Aquinas, who deals with the theme in the context ofcharity. 11The word “charity,” in modern usage often conveys the ideaof individual kindness, manifested in giving help to the needy,and this makes it hard for us to appreciate the central place St.Thomas gives to it in his thinking about war and peace. Charityhere means political charity. St. Thomas adopts and expandsAristotle’s political notion of philia (amicitia) as his model forthe caritas which is the foundation of the community of thehuman family as not merely creatures but children of God. Thecity state or polis, for Aristotle, had its basis in philia. Thismeans not so much friendship in our modern sense but “companionshipwith trust.” 12 In St. Thomas’s enlarged conception,political charity means companionship in a shared project tocreate together, not merely a polis, but an inclusive human family.This element of charity was preserved in the subsequent10World Day of Peace Message, 2003, no.6. www.vatican.va/holy-father/john_paul_ii/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20021217-world-day-for-peace_html.11S. Th. II-II, q. 40, a. 1.12Herbert MCCABE, “Manuals and Rule Books,” in UnderstandingVeritatis Splendor, ed. John Wilkins (London: SPCK, 1994) 64.