CHAPTER EIGHT

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CHAPTER EIGHT

• Justice and Peace

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Christians and Peace
the tranquility of order a gift from Jesus Christ
What is peace?

• . Why should we care about peace?
• . Christians must be peacemakers
• To engage in the work of peace means we must work
  for justice, and justice requires forgiveness
• Peacemaking is enhanced by our practice of the
  virtues
• Prayer is essential for developing a spirituality
  of peacemaking

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Christians and Peace

• The Church teaches us about peace in several
  important documents
• 1. The Church in the Modern World written during
  Vatican II and says Peace is an enterprise of
  justice
• 2. The Challenge of Peace a document written by
  the bishops that outlines their ideas about peace
  and says Peacemaking begins in a persons heart
• 3. The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace a
  letter commemorating the tenth anniversary of The
  Challenge of Peace, says that We must be humble,
  gentle, and patient with people. We must also be
  strong, active, and bold to spread the gospel of
  peace

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Christians and Peace
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Christians and Peace
A peaceful society can be built when peoples
rights are honored and respected. The human
community has a right and duty to act where the
lives and the fundamental rights of large numbers
of people are at serious risk. The Harvest
of Justice
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Christians and Peace
Peace is more than the absence of war. Achieving
peace means alleviating the injustices
individuals and society suffer by promoting their
individual and collective development. John Paul
wrote another name for peace is
developmentthere is a collective responsibility
for promoting development. On the One Hundredth
Anniversary of Rerum Novarum
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Christians and Peace
The virtue of solidarity is a firm and
persevering determination to seek the good of
all. It recognizes that we are one human family
and that we are required to respond to others
needs, not only in our own country, but around
the world, despite any differences of race,
religion, or nationality. Human solidarity
recognizes that people have a common destiny.
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Christians and Peace

• Causes of War

Political
Cultural/religious
Economic
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The Meaning of Peace in the Bible

• Peace is a central theme in the Bible and has a
  variety of meanings in the scriptures.
• Peace can mean
• Individual sense of security
• Cessation of armed hostility among the nations
• A right relationship with God
• The end of time

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The Meaning of Peace in the Bible

• Peace in the Old Testament
• Peace develops into a rich image that is
  understood in light of Israels relationship to
  God
• Peace is stressed as a unity and harmony of the
  whole community with other peoples and with
  creation itself
• Peace is one of the fruits of keeping the
  covenant with God (Lv 26 11-12)

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The Meaning of Peace in the Bible

• Peace in the New Testament
• Christs proclamation of Gods reign calls us to
  conversion. We must now embrace a new way of
  life that both fulfills and goes beyond the Law.
  This love requires us to put into action an
  active, life-giving, and inclusive love that must
  go beyond family and friends. It must reach out
  even to our enemies.

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The Meaning of Peace in the Bible

• Peace in the New Testament
• Jesus commands us to forgive and love even in the
  face of threat or opposition
• Jesus command to forgive and love undercuts the
  revenge and hate that cause conflicts
• Jesus gift of peace is a foretaste of what is in
  store for humanity which one day will accept him
  as the Prince of Peace

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Responding to conflict
Ways to respond to armed conflict
nonviolence
just war
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Responding to conflict
Ways to respond to armed conflict
nonviolence
just war
The Church teaches that both traditions hold
moral insight i.e. Either position could be
argued by sincere Christians of good conscience
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Nonviolence

• Q. What does the Church tells us about
  nonviolence?
• A. Church teaching always begins with a
  presumption against war, advocating peaceful
  settlement of disputes
• A. the Church also recognizes the right and
  duty of legitimate political authorities to
  employ limited force as a last resort to save
  innocent people and to establish peace when
  nonviolent action has failed

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Nonviolence

• Three levels of violence

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Nonviolence

• Not passivity the sit back and do nothing
  approach
• Nonviolence requires courage, patience, action,
  creativity, and a passionate commitment to seek
  justice and truth no matter what the price

Refuses to engage in armed conflict or wars
considered unjust or because of religious
convictions
Conscientious objector
Turn to page 183
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The Just-War Tradition
Go to Page 185
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The Just-War Tradition
Must be real, lasting, grave, and certain damage
inflicted by an aggressor on a nation or a
community of nations
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The Just-War Tradition
The right to declare a war of defense belongs to
those who have the legitimate responsibility to
represent the people and are entrusted with the
common good
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The Just-War Tradition
To be just, a war must be waged for the best of
reasons and with a commitment to post-war
reconciliation with the enemy
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The Just-War Tradition
The odds of success should be weighed against the
human cost of the war. (To prevent irrational
use of force or hopeless resistance when either
will prove futile.)
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The Just-War Tradition
The damage to be inflicted and the costs incurred
must be proportionate to the good expected.
Armed conflict must not produce evils and
disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.
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The Just-War Tradition
War must be a last resort, justifiable only if
all peaceful efforts have been tried and
exhausted and there are no alternatives.
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The Just-War Tradition
The Churchs Just-War tradition also imposes a
moral standard of restraint once there is armed
conflict. The standard includes
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The Just-War Tradition
Civilians may not be the object of direct attack.
Military strategies must avoid and minimize any
indirect harm inflicted on noncombatants
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The Just-War Tradition
Minimum force necessary to obtain military
objectives should be carefully adhered to so
undue collateral damage to civilian property may
be avoided
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The Just-War Tradition
Political and Military leaders must always see
that peace with justice is the only reason for
the use of arms. Vengeful acts and
indiscriminate killing (committed by individuals,
military forces, or governments) are forbidden
and immoral.
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The Just-War Tradition
Mass extermination of a people, nation, or ethnic
minority is morally reprehensible and gravely
sinful. Furthermore, blind obedience to unjust
orders, for example, participating in genocide,
cannot excuse ones moral responsibility for
participating in such a heinous crime.
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The Just-War Tradition
Someone who objects to and refuses to participate
in wars and rejects any recourse to violence
regardless of the circumstances
pacifist
The damage inflicted and the costs incurred to be
commensurate with the good expected
Principle of proportionality
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The Just-War Tradition
The bishops hold that in a violent society that
fosters a culture of death, it may be more
difficult in the future to apply these principles
in a restrained way.
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The Just-War Tradition

• - What may never be permitted in a war (CCC and
  The Challenge of Peace)
• War aimed at entire cities or extensive areas
• Any act that has great potential for widespread
  destruction
• (The Challenge of Peace condemns
• nuclear war

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The Just-War Tradition

• There are major problems trying to apply the
  just-war criteria to any kind of nuclear war.
• The bishops do not perceive any situation in
  which the first use of nuclear weapons could be
  justified.
• They also question whether there can be
• such a thing as a limited nuclear war.

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The Just-War Tradition

• The Church supports laws that would make
  provisions for conscientious objectors who refuse
  to bear arms provided they accept some other form
  of community service.
• A citizen may not casually disregard his
  countrys conscientious decision to call its
  citizens to acts of legitimate defense.
• The Challenge of Peace

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The Just-War Tradition

• Moreover, the role of Christian citizens in the
  armed forces is a service to the common good and
  an exercise of the virtue of patriotism, so long
  as they fulfill this role within defined moral
  norms
• The Challenge of Peace Par 232

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The Just-War Tradition and Terrorism

• Terrorism is built on a contempt for human life
  (see page 188)

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The Just-War Tradition and Terrorism

• The most effective way to stop terrorism is to
  remove its causes of poverty, and the
  powerlessness of people around the world because
  of oppression and the lack of respect for their
  basic human rights

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Peacemaking Strategies

• - A task for both individuals and societies

Turn to page 190
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Peacemaking Strategies

• Global option for the poor

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Peacemaking Strategies

• Global solidarity
• Requires us to commit ourselves to the
  common good of all people
• Worlds rich nations will promote
  development of poorer nations

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Peacemaking Strategies

• Q. What are the steps to building a more peaceful
  international community?
• A. Strengthen international institutions like the
  United Nations
• A. Work to secure human rights
• A. Promote true development of the poorer nations

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Peacemaking Strategies

• What are the steps to righting the inequities of
  the world?
• Improve foreign aid
• Rectify trade relationships
• Relieve international debt
• End arms race, halt arms trade and ban
  landmines

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Vocabulary

• peace
• levels of violence
• Just war tradition
• principle of proportionality
• pacifist
• conscientious objector