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well it's certainly in regard to its
sexual teaching that the church comes in
for its strongest criticism for being
unbending and and you know way too
demanding too stringent etc polls of
Catholics regularly reveal just some
we're done recently in Europe I think
that most Catholics disagree with the
Church's teaching on whether it's C on
homosexuality it's abortion masturbation
contraception that these are impossible
to fulfill most Catholics would
recommend some change in the teaching
even those who are you know very
strongly supportive of Catholicism in
general would call for a certain
softening of the Church's moral demand
so we're used to hearing that can I get
at this question a somewhat oblique way
by changing the subject a bit or the
focus a bit away from sexuality to
another area of the church's moral
concern namely just war so if you
consult the church's social teaching you
find this well-developed
Just War theory for a war to be just in
its you know to enter into the war seven
stringent criteria have to be met
simultaneously ranging from a
declaration by a competent authority to
some proportionality between the
destructiveness of the war and their
good to be attained a just cause last
resort several others simultaneously all
seven have to be met for the war to be
considered just if you really apply
those strictly very few wars in human
history were entered into justly on the
church's view moreover in the actual
waging of a war two more criteria
freemen namely proportionality and
discrimination there's got to be again a
balance between the destruction of a
certain act of war and they're good to
be attained and then secondly there has
to be a discrimination between
combatants and non-combatants between
those who are soldiers and those who are
innocents look even though
who claimed World War two which usually
gets you know acknowledged as a just war
even those who acknowledge that World
War two was was just in its entering
into it would be hard-pressed to say
that it met the criteria of
proportionality and discrimination in
all of the ways it was waged I think for
example of those carpet bombings that
took place in Germany Frankfurt and
Munich Dresden many other cities Tokyo
same thing which killed hundreds of
thousands of civilians clearly both
proportionality and discrimination were
violated and then even more egregiously
and famously in regard to the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
proportionality discrimination I mean
very hard pressed to say those two
criteria were met in regard to those
actions this is why for example in the
wake of World War two the catholic moral
philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe very
formidable figure applying church's
social teaching clearly condemned the
atomic bombings she went so far as to
protest Harry Truman receiving an
honorary Doctorate from Oxford
University on the grounds that Oxford
should not be honoring someone
responsible for the deaths of hundreds
of thousands of innocents now an answer
to this kind of criticism a lot of
Catholics at the time would have used
frankly consequentialist forms of
reasoning you know that the drop in
these bombs though terrible resulted in
the end of the war and thereby saved you
know whatever number of lives if you
took a poll of Catholics at that time
let's say nineteen fall of 1945 I'd be
willing to bet that 90% 95% would have
said yeah the dropping atomic bombs was
legitimate well here's the thing
does anybody today really think the
Catholic Church on a dial back its moral
demand when it comes to just war do they
even think oh yeah we should really
soften those demands because you know
polls of Catholics say we shouldn't we
can't live up to that because we can use
consequentialist forms of reasoning no
we
we'd say stay with those strict laws
those straight requirements here's the
thing the Catholic Church has one basic
job it's basic job is to produce Saints
Jesus said be perfect as your heavenly
Father is perfect the church is not
interested in producing spiritual
mediocrities in producing people with
hearts of gold nice people that get
along its job is to produce Saints
people of radical holiness which is
precisely why it holds up very high and
very stringent moral ideals and
requirements now let's go back now into
the sexual arena does the church hold up
very high demands here yeah because it
wants Saints in this sexual arena as
well it wants people of radical holiness
in this area of life most Catholics
let's say it's 90 percent 95 percent
want us to dial down those ideals many
Catholics would use consequentialist
forms of reasoning as they would in
regard to the atomic bombs but does
anyone really think that a church that
is designed to produce Saints ought to
be dialing down its moral ideals
now there's a flip side to all this and
to get this right is to get the Catholic
thing yes very high moral demands at the
same time the church has an extremely
lenient penitential system let's say for
example the pilot of the Enola Gay that
was the the plane that dropped the
atomic bomb on Hiroshima he was a
Catholic I believe suppose he walked
into a confessional knelt down said
bless me Father for I have sinned I'm
responsible for the deaths of a hundred
thousand innocent civilians now would
the priest counsel him certainly would
the priest a sign of penance even a
strict penance possibly
but at the end of the day what would the
priests say if he was confessing this in
with a complete honest sense of
repentance what would the priests say
that's exactly what I
he'd say i absolve you from all your
sins in the name of the Father and of
the son of the Holy Spirit and that
man's sin in the eyes of the Catholic
Church would be forgiven period extreme
demand yeah we're here to make Saints
extreme sacramental leniency yeah
because the church fully acknowledges we
all fall short of the moral ideals all
the time see to get both sides of that
clear is to understand the church the
problem is we'll take one or the other
my generation got the whole message of
leniency leniency leniency you know God
is love God forgives everything the
trouble with that is we're not called to
sanctity we're not called a moral
heroism the other problem is stringent
stringent stringent then you get into a
you know self-loathing how can I
possibly live up to this the point is to
get both of them at the same time with
equal vigor equal vehement that's the
key to the Catholic thing
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