A letter on "Just War"

Jozef Hand-Boniakowski
http://www.metaphoria.org

Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn, D.D.
Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Dear Father Flynn:

As a veteran of the Vietnam era, a parent who gave a kidney to his son, a member of Veterans for Peace, a son whose father was wounded in North Africa (Palestine) during World War II, a pacifist, and as a former Catholic, I am writing you this letter as a consequence of your response to Mary and Nick Eoloff and their petition to repudiate the Catholic Church's "Just War Theory".

In 1939, the National Conference of Bishops defined "just war" as being the use of lethal force proportionately with no more force than necessary while avoiding death and injury to civilians. The violence must have a probability of succeeding and may be used only as a last resort after all peaceful alternatives have been exhausted. Leading Catholic theologian J. Brian Hehir states that when invoking the "just war" doctrine, the Catholic Church is saying "...that there is an aggression, a major offense is being committed and you do not have any other way to protect people from that aggression except to use force."

Clearly, the "just war" doctrine is a farce since civilians are being killed on a daily basis in most of the U.S. wars of the mid and late 20th century, and now the 21st century. After the vastly disproportionately fought 1991 Persian Gulf War, Secretary of State of Madeline Albright stated publicly that the deaths of one-half million Iraqi children via sanctions was "worth it" and that the sanctions should continue. Is there a "just war" doctrine these folks can use that you would accept? Perhaps they have one. You see, Father, the evil is the violence itself.

Consider Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What would good Japanese Catholics in Japan on August 6 and 9 do with the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine and the U.S. bishops "just war" doctrine in determining an appropriate response to the USA use of nuclear weapons against their civilian populations? I surmise that if they had the wherewithal and the infrastructure to continue, the Japanese bishops would have used the "just war" theory to respond with more violence, perhaps even justifying a similar or greater atrocity against the U.S.

The mere concept of developing a "collateral damage" strategy, that is, seeing deaths, injury and the maiming of civilians as acceptable is contrary to the "just war" doctrine itself. Yet, the U.S. continues to fight its wars under an acceptable collateral damage mindset while carpet bombing enormous areas of territory with the latest weaponry including cluster bombs and bunker busters. Father Flynn, what ever happened to "Thou shalt not kill?" Can you name many countries that U.S. has not militarily or otherwise violently exploited?

I find it difficult to believe that Jesus would accept the "just war" doctrine with the statement, "The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated." This suggests that "evils and disorders" produced that are less than the "evils and disorders" being fought are acceptable. This is moral relativism. My understanding is that the Catholic Church abhors moral relativism. Throughout the Catholic Church's history such relativism has been used to justify the Church's position and the position of nations within which the Church sought to empower itself as a "legitimate" moral force having power to influence the leadership for its own gain and purposes.

Father Flynn. "Just war" is just war. The phrase itself "just war" is a non-sequitur and is an absurdity. The evil in the world today is war and violence as a means of settling disputes between nations and people. To suggest that some evil is just in order to fight another evil brings rationalism as justification to the victor. The victor then can have a moral claim via "just war" to accepting it all, atrocities included.

Thirty years ago, in 1973, I left the Catholic Church. This occurred shortly after completion of my military service. The prospects of my return are nil. It has been a very long time for me communicating with any clergy of the Catholic Church. I do receive the Catholic Worker Newspaper and will continue to do so. I believe Dorothy Day and the life that she led are much closer to that of Christ than is the Catholic Church.

Finally, when I was in the Navy, stationed in Guantanamo Bay, I dared to place a homemade poster on the door in the communications room where I worked. It was a hand-drawn portrait of Jesus with a smile. The caption underneath read, "Would this man carry a draft card?" I ask you, Father Flynn: Would Jesus accept the just war doctrine?

Sincerely,

Jozef Hand-Boniakowski, PhD