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THE FAILURE OF PEACE: WAR
- 497.
- “The Magisterium condemns ‘the savagery of war’ and asks that war be considered in a new way.”
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 77: AAS 58 (1966), 1100.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2307-2317.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes,80: AAS 58 (1966), 1103-1104.
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 291.
- Leo XIII, Address to the College of Cardinals: Acta Leonis XIII, 19 (1899), 270-272.
- John Paul II, Meeting with Officials of the Roman Vicariate (17 January 1991): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 21 January 1991, p. 1.
- John Paul II, Address to the Latin-Rite Bishops of the Arabian Peninsula (1 October 1990), 4: AAS 83 (1991), 475.
- Paul VI, Address to Cardinals (24 June 1965): AAS 57 (1965), 643-644.
- Benedict XV, Appeal to the Leaders of the Warring Nations (1 August 1917): AAS 9 (1917), 423.
- John Paul II, Prayer for peace during General Audience (16 January 1991): Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, XIV, 1 (1991), 121.
- “Nothing is lost by peace; everything may be lost by war.”
- Pius XII, Radio Message (24 August 1939): AAS 31 (1939) 334.
- John Paul II, Message for the 1993 World Day of Peace, 4: AAS 85 (1993), 433-434.
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 288.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes 79: AAS 58 (1966), 1102-1103.
- John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 11: AAS 91 (1999), 385.
- John Paul II, Address to the Diplomatic Corps (13 January 2003), 4: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 15 January 2003, p. 3.
- Paul VI, Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations (4 October 1965), 5: AAS 57 (1965), 881.
- 498.
- “Seeking alternative solutions to war for resolving international conflicts has taken on tremendous urgency today.”
- 499.
- “States do not always possess adequate means to provide effectively for their own defence, from this derives the need and importance of international and regional organizations.”
LEGITIMATE DEFENSE
- 500.
- “A war of aggression is intrinsically immoral. In the tragic case where such a war breaks out, leaders of the State that has been attacked have the right and the duty to organize a defence even using the force of arms.”
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2265.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2309.
- Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, The International Arms Trade. An ethical reflection (1 May 1994), ch. 1, 6: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 1994, p. 13.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 79: AAS 58 (1966), 1103.
- 501.
- “The Charter of the United Nations, born from the tragedy of the Second World War with the intention of preserving future generations from the scourge of war, is based on a generalized prohibition of a recourse to force to resolve disputes between States, with the exception of two cases: legitimate defence and measures taken by the Security Council within the area of its responsibilities for maintaining peace.”
- “Therefore, engaging in a preventive war without clear proof that an attack is imminent cannot fail to raise serious moral and juridical questions.”
DEFENDING PEACE
- 502.
- “The requirements of legitimate defence justify the existence in States of armed forces, the activity of which should be at the service of peace. Those who defend the security and freedom of a country, in such a spirit, make an authentic contribution to peace.”
- 503.
- “Every member of the armed forces is morally obligated to resist orders that call for perpetrating crimes against the law of nations and the universal principles of this law.”
- “Conscientious objectors who, out of principle refuse military service in those cases where it is obligatory because their conscience rejects any kind of recourse to the use of force or because they are opposed to the participation in a particular conflict, must be open to accepting alternative forms of service.”
THE DUTY TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT
- 504.
- “The right to use force for purposes of legitimate defence is associated with the duty to protect and help innocent victims who are not able to defend themselves from acts of aggression.”
- 505.
- “The principle of humanity inscribed in the conscience of every person and all peoples includes the obligation to protect civil populations from the effects of war.”
- John Paul II, Address at General Audience (11 August 1999), 5: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 25 August 1999, p. 6.
- John Paul II, 1990 Message for Lent, 3: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 12 February 1990, p. 5.
- 506.
- “Attempts to eliminate entire national, ethnic, religious or linguistic groups are crimes against God and humanity itself, and those responsible for such crimes must answer for them before justice.”
- John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 7: AAS 91 (1999), 382.
- John Paul II, Message for the 2000 World Day of Peace, 7: AAS 92 (2000), 362.
- John Paul II, Address at the Regina Coeli (18 April 1993), 3: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 21 April 1993, p. 12.
- Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, We Remember. A Reflection on the Shoah (16 March 1998), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 1998.
- “The international community as a whole has the moral obligation to intervene on behalf of those groups whose very survival is threatened or whose basic human rights are seriously violated.”
- John Paul II, Message for the 2000 World Day of Peace, 11: AAS 92 (2000), 363.
- John Paul II, Address to the Diplomatic Corps (16 January 1993), 13: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 20 January 1993, p. 9.
- John Paul II, Address to the International Conference on Nutrition sponsored by FAO and WHO (5 December 1992), 3: AAS 85 (1993), 922-923.
- John Paul II, Message for the 2004 World Day of Peace, 9: AAS 96 (2004), 120.
- John Paul II, Sunday Angelus (14 June 1998): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 17 June 1998, p. 1.
- John Paul II, Address to participants in the World Congress on Pastoral Promotion of Human Rights (4 July 1998), 5: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 29 July 1998, p. 8.
- John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 7: AAS 91 (1999), 382.
- Pius XII, Address at the Sixth International Congress of Criminal Law (3 October 1953): AAS 45 (1953), 730-744.
MEASURES AGAINST THOSE WHO THREATEN PEACE
- 507.
- “Sanctions, in the forms prescribed by the contemporary international order, seek to correct the behavior of the government of a country that violates the rules of peaceful and ordered international coexistence or that practices serious forms of oppression with regard to its population.”
- “The true objective of such measures is open to the way to negotiation and dialogue. Sanctions must never be used as a means for the direct punishment of an entire population.”
DISARMAMENT
- 508.
- “The Church’s social teaching proposes the goal of ‘general, balanced and controlled disarmament.’ The enormous increase in arms represents a grave threat to stability and peace. The principle of sufficiency, by virtue of which each State may possess only the means necessary for its legitimate defence, must be applied both by States that buy arms and by those that produce and furnish them.”
- John Paul II, Message for the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations (14 October 1985), 6: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 14 November 1985, p. 4.
- Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, The International Arms Trade. An ethical reflection (1 May 1994), ch. 1, 9-11, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 1994, p. 14.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2316.
- John Paul II, Address to the World of Work, Verona, Italy (17 April 1988), 6: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, XI, 1 (1988), 940.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2315.
- 509.
- “Arms of mass destruction –– whether biological, chemical or nuclear –– represent a particularly serious threat. Those who possess them have an enormous responsibility before God and all of humanity.”
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 80: AAS 58 (1966), 1104.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2314.
- John Paul II, Message for the 1986 World Day of Peace, 2: AAS 78 (1986), 280.
- John Paul II, Address to the Diplomatic Corps (13 January 1996), 7: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 17 January 1996, p. 2.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 80: AAS 58 (1966), 1104.
- 510.
- “Disarmament must include the banning of weapons that inflict excessively traumatic injury or that strike indiscriminately. This includes anti-personnel landmines, a type of small arm that is inhumanly insidious because it continues to cause harm even long after the cessation of hostilities.”
- “The international community must continue its committed efforts aimed at mine-clearance.”
- 511.
- “Appropriate measures are needed to control the production, sale, importation and exportation of small arms and light weapons, armaments that facilitate many outbreaks of violence to occur.”
- 512.
- “The use of children and adolescents as soldiers in armed conflicts –– despite the fact that their young age should bar them from being recruited –– must be condemned.”
THE CONDEMNATION OF TERRORISM
- 513.
- “Terrorism is one of the most brutal forms of violence traumatizing the international community today; it sows hatred, death, and an urge for revenge and reprisal.”
- 514.
- “Terrorism is to be condemned in the most absolute terms. It shows complete contempt for human life and can never be justified, since the human person is always an end and never a means.”
- 515.
- “It is a profanation and a blasphemy to declare oneself a terrorist in God’s name.”
- “No religion may tolerate terrorism and much less preach it.”
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