Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE WAR IN IRAQ 315traditions. A further question now needs to be investigated,namely whether there are new elements in the Papal policyregarding war and peace.A New Direction in Policy?Does the Pope’s manner of dealing with this latest war indicatea new, and more active and explicit response than was thecase with the policy and practice of preceding Popes? To answerthis question we need to recall the practice of the Holy See in thepast and the theology that supported it. As a general name forthat practice, I will use the term The Catholic Pastorate forPeace. 16This pastorate for peace has a vision, specifically of a universal,world society where nations exist in basic harmony. Itpresumes that our common humanity is a fact, and that this isthe basis of a moral imperative to work for real human community.17 It appeals to the virtue of mutual trust. Thus Pope JohnXXIII wrote in Pacem in Terris: (1963) “True and lasting peaceamong nations cannot consist in the possession of an equal supplyof armaments but only in mutual trust.” (# 113) 18 It alsoincludes an historical project, namely replacing war as a meansof settling disputes, with systems of arbitration. To this end, itcalls for an international authority. Papal teaching specificallycalls for the kind of universal authority which could resolve conflictsbetween nations. Thus Pope John wrote in the same document:16I have drawn here on John H. Yoder, Nevertheless: Varieties ofReligious Pacifism (Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1976) 13. Yoder,uses the expression “The Pacifism of Christian Cosmopolitanism” to designatethe approach taken by recent Popes. I have used the simpler term “pastoratefor peace,” in part because the term “pacifism” has not been acceptedby the present Pope. See JOHN PAUL II, Message for the First of January, 1984,# 3.17Cf. Yoder, Nevertheless, 16.18www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jxxiii_enc_11041963_pacem_en.htm.