Peace and War
John XXIII’s Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) published in 1963 was the first Catholic social teaching document to consider peace and war at some length. Later, in 1965, Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World) included a chapter on "The Fostering of Peace and the Promotion of a Community of Nations." The information here draws on these documents.
Peace among nations is more than the absence of war. Lasting peace will not result even if a balance of power between enemy states is maintained. No dictatorship over nations can bring it about. It is rightly and appropriately called a work of justice. As men work for greater justice, they will build into human society the order desired by its divine Founder. Peace can never be attained once and for all. It must be built up unceasingly. This is because the human will is wounded by sin. Therefore, the achievement of peace requires constant mastering of passions on the part of persons, and the constant vigilance of lawful authority.
Deterrence does have a role in maintaining peace. However, because of the enormous power of modern weapons, the mere continuance of nuclear tests can seriously jeopardize life on earth. Another impediment to peace is the arms race. Justice demands that the arms race should cease and the stockpile of weapons be reduced equally and simultaneously by all parties concerned.
In order to limit the use of war, Catholic social teaching has concerned itself with the circumstances under which a just war can be waged. The cause must be just, such as a defense against aggression. War must always be a last resort. All reasonable peaceful alternatives must be tried first. There must be some possibility of success. The good to be obtained must outweigh the harm that will be caused. When competent authority decides that a war is appropriate in a given situation, the means used to fight the war must be just. A distinction must always be made between combatants and non-combatants. Tactics and weapons must be proportional for the situation.
The horror of modern war has compelled the Church to look at war in a new way. In Gaudium et Spes (#78), the Church accepts the pacifist position of "those who renounce the use of violence in the vindication of their rights." This is a legitimate position for individual Catholics, so long as it does not injure the rights and duties of others or the community itself. The Church now accepts conscientious objection, which it had previously opposed. The Church asks states to pass laws to make humane provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms, provided that they accept some other form of service to the human community.
Terrorist acts against civilians as a form of war waged by the powerless against the powerful have been condemned by the Catholic Church. Terrorism has not yet been addressed at length in a formal document of Catholic social teaching, although the Holy Father had denounced terrorism on many occasions.
In a paper presented at the conference "A Call to Justice: The Legacy of Gaudium et Spes," held in Vatican City from March 16-18, 2005, and available at http://www.stthomas.edu/gaudium/Default.htm Father Kenneth R. Himes, OFM, presented three different understandings of peace in the Catholic tradition. What follows is a summary of Father Himes's paper, "The Catholic Vision of Peace after Gaudium et Spes."
According to Father Himes, we need a vision of peace that is clear and will provide direction for our efforts. One difficulty of developing a vision of peace is that we can end up with a vision so idealized that it does not connect with any of the earthly realities of life in our time. Religious communities can present a vision of peace that is wonderful to contemplate but too impractical to actually seek.
Historically, peace has had different meanings. One meaning can be seen in the word shalom. For the Israelite, shalom implies a sense of well-being, fulfillment, even prosperity. Another meaning is in the word, pax. The Latin word for peace comes from the same root as the English word, pact. Peace was an agreement not to fight. So even in the ancient world peace had two meanings: peace as a positive state, shalom, and peace as the absence of war, pax.
When a war ends and a treaty is signed, we say that peace has been restored. This is peace as non-war - a negative understanding of the term. The positive understanding of peace includes harmony, personal and/or communal well being, forgiveness and reconciliation, happiness, acceptance, and security. The positive meaning is closer to the vision of the Church than the negative meaning. The problem is that, if peace is the equivalent of all good, it is difficult to know what it means to create peace and how to know when we succeed in doing so.
The positive meaning of peace is reflected in the peaceful community of Isaiah where the lion and the lamb lie down together. It is the peace depicted in the book of Revelation when the heavenly Jerusalem will descend and there will be no more tears and pain or suffering and death. This is a vision of peace at the end-time. It is one understanding of peace.
The writings of Paul and John speak of the interior peace that an individual experiences living in the presence of Jesus. We are told in Ephesians 2:14-16 that Christ is our peace for he has made us one. This peace is the result of the grace that Paul preaches has come to all who are baptized in the Lord; it is the union of vine and branches that John describes. This is a second understanding of peace.
Throughout the Catholic tradition there is another way of speaking of peace. This third kind of peace can be called political peace. It is what Augustine described as tranquillitas ordinis. It is an order of tranquility that is the result of a political community that is rightly ordered. People live in truth, charity, freedom and justice directed toward the common good. This kind of peace is within the grasp of human possibility. It is not the distant goal of peace in the end-time or the interior peace achieved by knowing in faith the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Political peace is a genuine kind of peace. It is not to be disparaged. Political peace is a noble thing to achieve and deserves our commitment to attain and preserve it.
Political peace does not rest on armed deterrence. That is a false peace. Deterrence can provide "peace of a sort" but is not a satisfactory system of international order. True political peace springs from a rightly ordered political community, whether domestic or international. It rests on mutual trust. Rightly ordered political peace is a genuine good worthy of Christian support and commitment.
In the Catholic vision political peace is attainable. In Populorum progression Paul VI said, "Peace is something that is built up day after day, in the pursuit of an order intended by God, which implies a more perfect form of justice among persons." What he is saying is that political peace is not a blessing from God but a task that has to be undertaken by human beings. People of good will must work together to create a more just world order. The subtitle to Populorum progression is Development is the New Name for Peace. The sub-title highlighted development as a particular aspect of justice that required attention. Later, in the World Day of Peace message for 1972, Paul VI coined the expression, "If you want peace work for justice."
During the decade of the sixties, there were competing theories of development. Some thought of development only in economic terms. Residents of poor countries found that initial hopes for development did not materialize as a result of following the economic directives of the developed countries. Paul VI had ideas that went beyond economic development. He spoke of "integral development." Integral development includes other aspects of human existence - cultural, political, psychological, and religious. All had to be included in any satisfactory understanding of genuine development. According to Catholic social teaching, any theory of development must address the stubborn resistance of social structures that hinder the genuine advancement of people toward a better life. In Catholic social teaching, justice was seen as the key virtue when discussing the need for social transformation.
Linking development and justice revealed the moral dimension of development. Justice entails the creation of a social system that promotes the common good and secures each person's right and ability both to contribute to, and benefit from, the common good.
Twenty years after Populorum progression, John Paul II wrote that solidarity is the path to peace and at the same time to development. Solidarity is the virtue that allows us "to see the 'other' - whether a person, people, or nation - . . . as our 'neighbor,' a 'helper,' to be made a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life. . ." Solidarity serves as the motivating energy that fosters a desire to work for truly just development by helping poor countries establish proper national and international practices, policies and institutions.
Father Himes sums up the papal vision in this way. "Peace is the outcome of a committed engagement (solidarity) to the project of social progress for individuals and societies (just development). Paul VI promoted this understanding by his linkage of development and justice as new terms for peace. John Paul II, while echoing the viewpoint of Paul VI, has added solidarity as the crucial step in working for justice. Solidarity is the path to development, and peace is the end result of working for development that is just."
Afterword:
The Peace and Justice Commission of the Secular Franciscan Order embraces the papal vision of political peace as well as the personal peace that comes to those who truly follow Christ, even as we look forward to the perfect peace of the end time. Because we believe that political peace can be attained by human effort, we advocate for justice on the national and international levels. We understand the vision of John Paul II when he speaks of a family of nations in solidarity with one another. It is the responsibility of the stronger nations to help the weaker, of the richer nations to assist the development of the poorer. Our nation's responsibility goes beyond economic partnerships that will be beneficial to us. Secular Franciscans speak out for partnerships of solidarity with poor nations. Such partnerships bring about the common good of the partner, not the economic advantage of one group or class.
Carolyn Colburn, sfo
colburn@sonic.net