Roman Catholic Teaching on Peace and War within a Broader Theological Context

The Roman Catholic teaching on peace and war, as found in the documents of the universal church and of the American bishops, is found to be consistent with traditional Catholic approaches to ethical theory, eschatology, and ecclesiology. Mediation in ethical theory recognizes that the gospel is mediated through reason and the sciences to particular conclusions and insists on the importance of structures and institutions. An eschatology recognizing the tension between the now and the not yet argues against both pacifism and a noncritical acceptance of the status quo. Catholic ecclesiology has traditionally accepted a pluralism of specific approaches in social ethics and understands the prophetic role of the church within such a big ecclesiology. This paper will study the official Roman Catholic teaching on peace, war, and disarmament in the light of the broader perspective of moral theology, giving special attention to three important areas ethical theory, eschatology, and ecclesiology. 1 The first part will briefly summarize the present teaching of the Roman Catholic Church as this is found in the documents of the universal hierarchical teaching authority and in the statements representing the American bishops as a whole. /. OFFICIAL ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHING The most authoritative recent statement of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on peace and war is found in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World of the Second Vatican Council. There have been and continue to be discussions about the exact meaning of Vatican II, but the main outlines of these teachings are, in my judgment, clear. The document (Abbott, 1966: 199-308) calls on Christians to cooperate with all people in securing a peace based on justice and love. The constitution, known by its Latin name Gaudium et Spes (Abbott: 295, n. 82), stresses the need for peace rooted in the hearts of all but also recognizes the need to set up structures and institutions to bring about that peace. Since human beings are sin-