KAI: All right, for $2,000, Libby, what completes the title
of Leo Tolstoy's epic 1867 novel, blank and Peace?
Is it A, kiwifruit;
B, indefatigability;
C, Warren Beatty?
LIBBY: Oh, I like him.
KAI: Or D, war.
Take your time.
LIBBY: Oh, this is easy.
I read this in high school.
The answer is D, war. (bell dinging)
KAI: The card says you're correct, but is war ever the answer?
LIBBY: Hmm.
(upbeat music)
LIBBY: Hi, I'm Libby.
KAI: And I'm Kai.
Welcome to Catholic Central.
LIBBY: War.
From the times of Cain and Abel, all the way up to today,
humans have been fighting and killing each other.
KAI: And for just as long,
people have been trying to figure out the morality of war.
LIBBY: We see conflict in the world,
and it's natural to wonder whether war is the answer,
or if it is ever the answer.
KAI: So how does the Catholic Church think about war and peace?
LIBBY: Let's start with an important distinction.
Peace is more than just the absence of war.
When the Church talks about peace,
it means genuine harmony, where people and nations
are in a state of right relationship.
KAI: Yeah, isn't everyone just looking
for the right relationship?
LIBBY: When Catholics talk about right relationship,
we mean a state where people aren't exploiting,
oppressing, or manipulating each other.
KAI: To have real peace, you need justice,
where people respect each other's rights
and meet their own responsibilities.
Jesus boiled this down to a simple principle.
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
LIBBY: Catholics believe that, through God,
even the hardest hearts can be turned away from violence.
This is why the Church prays together
for peace around the world.
KAI: Now, hang on a minute.
LIBBY: Yeah?
KAI: You do know that there are some terrible wars
going on right now, right?
LIBBY: Mm-hmm.
KAI: Well, if I didn't know better,
I'd say that God wasn't answering our prayers
for world peace.
LIBBY: This is an important point.
When we pray for peace,
we're not praying that some giant hand comes down
and swats missiles out of the sky.
Although that would be pretty cool.
Praying for peace is opening our own hearts to God's love
and asking the same for our fellow human beings.
KAI: That's why the Church also works actively
in the world to create peace.
These pro-peace activities include
standing up for human rights, supporting disarmament,
and promoting social and economic development
to target the root causes of violence and war.
LIBBY: Also, the Vatican has formal diplomatic relations
with about 180 countries and has mediated many crises
to prevent war, including playing an important role
in urging a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
KAI: So if you're glad that you and your parents
were even born, you could thank Pope Saint John XXIII.
LIBBY: Yet despite our best efforts to promote peace,
people sometimes misuse their God-given free will
and start wars anyway.
KAI: So let's talk about the Church's stance on war
and what it means for each of us.
LIBBY: First, we need to be really clear that war,
always and everywhere, causes innocent people to suffer.
KAI: If your only experience of war is movies, CNN,
and Call of Duty, it's easy to think of war
as something abstract that happens to other people far away.
LIBBY: But when you read about people killed in war,
every single one of them had human dignity,
hopes, and dreams, just like you.
KAI: We should do everything reasonably possible to avoid war.
Yet, the Church also recognizes that sometimes
people determined to harm the innocent
can only be stopped with force.
This idea led to what we call Just War Theory.
LIBBY: This dates back to Saint Augustine,
and was developed by other thinkers
like Saint Thomas Aquinas during the Middle Ages,
and Pope Saint John Paul II in our own time.
KAI: When national leaders are deciding whether to fight a war,
and individual citizens are deciding whether to support it,
there are four criteria to determine
whether it is a just war.
LIBBY: First, just cause.
KAI: Don't start a war just 'cause.
LIBBY: To be just, a war must be fought for the right reasons,
preventing a harm that is lasting, grave and certain.
A nation shouldn't go to war to expand its territories
or avenge an insult, but it can defend itself
or others against an enemy invasion.
KAI: Second, a just war must only be waged
as a last resort.
Once all other practical options have failed.
LIBBY: Third, there must be a real chance of success.
Wasting human lives is not just.
KAI: And fourth, proportionality.
The harms that a war seeks to prevent must be greater
than the harms that will be caused by the war itself.
LIBBY: So it sounds like I'm justified in waging war
on my roommate's boyfriend, Brian.
He's always at our apartment and won't even acknowledge me
when I'm in the room.
And his BO consistently makes me...
KAI: Maybe?
But it depends on the kind of war.
Even just wars must not be fought with immoral tactics.
No matter how evil an enemy leader is, or how bad their BO,
civilians are still civilians
and may not be deliberately targeted.
And even so-called collateral damage
must be proportional to the military benefit.
LIBBY: How do you determine the right proportion?
KAI: It's impossible to put an exact number on it,
but if you know that an attack will kill
or harm few enemy soldiers and many civilians,
or in your case your roommate, that's wrong.
LIBBY: What about limits on weapons?
KAI: Weapons of mass destruction like nuclear bombs
or deadly viruses kill soldiers
and civilians indiscriminately.
Land mines stay buried in the ground
and can maim children many years later.
LIBBY: So, no on weapons of mass destruction,
but what about setting traps?
KAI: Libby, could you stop thinking
about your roommate's boyfriend
and tell everyone about forming your conscience?
LIBBY: Oh, right.
A core principle of Catholic ethics
is each person's responsibility
to have a well-informed conscience.
This means paying attention to current events
and opposing unjust wars.
KAI: If you were ever in the military
and received an unjust order,
you have a responsibility to refuse.
The horrors of World War II showed
that just following orders is no excuse.
LIBBY: Although we have a duty to oppose unjust wars,
the Church recognizes that it
is also a legitimate moral choice to oppose all war.
This is known as pacifism.
KAI: You don't have to be a pacifist,
but many saints and great Catholics throughout history,
like Saint Francis, Dorothy Day,
and Thomas Merton, were pacifists.
Pacifists followed the radical example of Jesus,
who was arrested and tortured unjustly, but did not resist.
LIBBY: If someone is a soldier or forced to join the military,
but they refuse to participate in violence
because of their fundamental moral convictions,
they are known as conscientious objectors.
The Catholic Church supports
and affirms conscientious objectors
and works to uphold their rights around the world.
KAI: And although Christians have sometimes wrongly used God
as a justification for immoral violence,
today's Church is very clear that extremism
can never justify unjust war.
LIBBY: So anything else I need to consider
before I dramatically proclaim, this means war,
the next time Brian leaves dirty dishes in the sink?
KAI: Work on informing your conscience.
To make good judgments, stay informed about current events
and read writings by thinkers
who've struggled with these questions before.
LIBBY: Consider how new technologies like drones
might affect Just War Theory,
especially the consequences for victims,
which, now that I'm really thinking about it,
I guess it's not her fault.
KAI: One of the best ways to build peace in the fullest sense
of the word is by forming friendships with people
from other countries and from marginalized groups.
LIBBY: Because when you're friends with someone,
you don't usually want to kill them.
Maybe I can be a better friend to Brian
even though he makes me...
KAI: If you want peace in your apartment, then yes.
True peace is a state of justice and right relationship.
God made us to live in peace,
but some people abuse their free will to harm each other.
(clears throat)
LIBBY: Don't worry, I'm not going to wage war.
Yet.
For Catholic Central, I'm Libby.
KAI: And I'm Kai.
Check out our website for more resources,
CatholicCentral.com.
See you next time.
(upbeat music)