Can War Ever Be Just?

Can war ever be just? Or to put the question more practically, is it morally permissible for Christians to fight in a war? The Roman Catholic moral tradition going back as far as the fourth century after the birth of Christ has held that it is possible for Christians to engage in war justly, but that tradition may soon be changing. The source of that possible change is someone unexpected – Pope Benedict XVI. In this article I will address the development of the Church’s teaching on just war over the centuries, and then outline what the current pope has had to say on the issue of just war.

How has the Church viewed Christian participation in warfare? The primary source of her teaching on this and all other theological issues is the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. His teaching was unquestionably a nonviolent one, and early Christian bishops and theologians believed that our discipleship required us to refuse to do violence. The 3rd century Apostolic Tradition attributed to Hippolytus required that candidates for baptism forswear violence: “A soldier in command must be told not to kill people; if he is ordered to do so, he shall not carry it out. Nor should he take the oath. If he will not agree, he should be rejected. Anyone who has the power of the sword, or who is a civil magistrate wearing the purple, should desist, or he should be rejected.”

Once the Roman Empire recognized and then supported the Church, however, some theologians began to re-think the Church’s opposition to war. St. Ambrose of Milan (ca.339-397), who had been agovernmental official before entering the Church, began to teach that, under certain conditions, it was morally permissible for Christians to take up arms. His position grew more influential with its adoption by his protégé, St. Augustine of Hippo (ca. 354-430), and it reached its now classic formulation in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas (ca.1225-1274). In short, it holds that Christians may fight in war under certain circumstances. First, a nation may go to war only if certain conditions are met (these are called the jus ad bellum criteria – “justice in going to war”). Second, the war must also be conducted under certain conditions (the jus in bello criteria – “justice in war”).

A contemporary just war theorist has identified the following jus ad bellum criteria: (1) “The cause must be just; in other words, responding to a grave public evil, such as unprovoked aggression or threat to the human rights of entire populations.” (2) “The authority waging the war must be legitimate, duly constituted in service to public not private goods.” (3) “The intention motivating the war must be right, objectively aiming to promote the common good, not a hidden agenda.” (4) “Success must be probable, not a futile effort that does little more than destroy lives and resources on both sides.” (5) “The overall war effort must be proportional; in other words, the achievable good must outweigh the destruction that the war itself causes.” (6) “War must be the last resort, coming only after exhaustive attempts to resolve the conflict by peaceful means.”

The jus in bello criteria are: (1)“Non-combatants are to be immune from harm, military forces may never target civilians directly, and must make every effort to avoid indirect harm as well.” (2) “Specific military campaigns must also be proportional, employing no more force than necessary to meet military objectives.” (3) “Intention must continue to be right, subjectively motivated by a desire for peace withjustice, not vengeance or hatred.”

These criteria make it clear that the Church’s just war tradition is not an endorsement of war, but a set of principles for assessing whether and under what conditions Christians may engage (morally) in combat. Naturally, the current war in Iraq has stimulated a great deal of reflection among theologians of all Christian traditions, much of it on whether the U.S. satisfied the requirements of going to war justly and on whether the U.S. is conducting the war justly. Most moral theologians have found that the present war does not satisfy several of these criteria.

A new element in the debate is over whether the tradition holds that there is a presumption against war. Some current proponents of just war theory believe that there is not any such presumption; instead, they believe, there is a presumption against injustice, which a war might seek to remedy. I believe the answer is found in St. Thomas’ treatment of just war in his Summa Theologiae, the Second Part of the Second Part, Question 40. The first and obvious clue is the question itself: “Whether it is always sinful to wage war.” The question itself may be the work of a later editor, but the phrasing fits the content of Q. 40. Indeed, St. Thomas does not discuss war under the heading of justice – the virtue one might reasonably expect it to fall under – but under the heading of sins against charity.War falls between his discussion of “schism” and “strife.”

We find confirmation of this in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., which discusses just war in the context of the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves and specifically under the heading of“Safeguarding Peace.” The Catechism speaks first of the importance of peace, and then of the importance of avoiding war, saying that “the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war” (§2307), andthat “All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war” (§2308). It acknowledges the right of governments to “lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed” but adds, “The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy” (§2309).

So why might Pope Benedict XVI be interested in amending the Catholic tradition on war? The first clue is his choice of a papal name. The last pope to bear that name, Benedict XV, was popularly known as“the peace Pope.” Justin Cardinal Rigali confirmed that the Pope told the College of Cardinals that he chose the name because “he is desirous to continue the efforts of Benedict XV on behalf of peace. . . throughout the world.”

While it is early in his papacy, we do have various statements he made as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the head of the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.We know that he joined Pope John Paul II in condemning the U.S. war in Iraq asunjust. On more than one occasion, the Cardinal declared the war would be unjust because “the damage would be greater than the values one hopes to save.” In this he was following a settled principle of the just war tradition – “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition” (§2309).

Moreover, he made it clear that the idea of a “preventive” war is contrary to Catholic just war teaching. Because some American Catholic supporters of the present war have nonetheless argued for the legitimacy of preventive war, the Pope might wish to revise the Catechism to make the Church’s teaching more explicit.

The principal reason for thinking a change might be in the offing were remarks (then) Cardinal Ratzinger made at a press conference two years ago in which he discussed possible changes to the Catechism: “the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it isstill licit to admit the very existence of a ‘just war’” (May 2, 2003). This is not really a change in the tradition but a concern already addressed in the Catechism: “The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating” whether a war may be considered just (§2309). While no reasonable person would say that the U.S. has intended to kill noncombatants in Iraq, the nature of the warfare and its weapons has meant a staggering loss of innocent life. Such an outcome has always been considered to be a violation of the criteria for conducting a war justly.

If Pope Benedict XVI promulgates in his papacy the understanding he has had of the just war tradition in recent years, it will not be a change in the Church’s teaching but its application to the realities of war in our time.We may expect that he will do nothing other than to seek to make real in the life of the Church the teaching of Christ that concludes the Catechism’s treatment of war:“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God’ (Matthew 5:9).