Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE WAR IN IRAQ 325doctrine of the Catholic pastorate for peace, may not be used tolegitimate the expansive wars of empires or their substitutes. 36Toning Down Moral Critique?We must now consider the objection that the CatholicChurch’s concern for pastoral reconciliation has muted explicitethical criticism of particular wars and acts of war. It hasalready been noted that in its activity for peace the Church hasusually, but not always, refrained from direct ethical judgmentson the justice of a particular county’s going to war or on the justiceof the way in which a particular country conducted the war.Yoder asks: “Can moral exhortation thus speak of what is generallygood for society while side-stepping firm commitment oncontested matters of morality, …” He adds, “Such a ‘pastoral’concern for all the world can also fail to take sides when thetruth does demand a recognition that both parties are not equallyto blame.” 37 Pope John Paul has spoken out. He condemnedthe attacks of September 11 th . 2001 as “an unspeakable horror.”He has also been critical, and some would say, condemnatory, ofthe war in Iraq. The Pope is not supporting a doctrine of moralequivalence between the attacker and the attacked: he is condemningevil as he sees it. But, I suggest, he is doing so in a mannerthat is more forthright than that of his predecessors, and thisis a new element. We might interpret this as a choice not toallow concern for all to mute the judgment of particular evil.Condoning War?There is, however, a further criticism of the Catholic pastoratefor Peace, which in fact included, even while it never for-36See, Andrew J. BACEVICH, American Empire: The Realities andConsequences of U.S. Diplomacy (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 2002.)37YODER, Nevertheless, 17.