Pope: Iraq War "has no moral justification";
Says Decision Should have been Made by UN
Here is what Pope Benedict really thinks of Bush and his Iraq War:
Is the war that has been announced against Iraq a just war?
“All I can do is invite you to read the Catechism,” [the present Pope when he was still] Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger replied with a mischievous grin, “and the conclusion seems obvious to me…”
For the guardian of Catholic orthodoxy, the obvious conclusion is that the military intervention that is taking shape “has no moral justification” (September 20, interview on the Italian national news program). The Catechism, Ratzinger [now Benedict] explained, does not embrace a pacifist position a priori; indeed, it admits the possibility of a “just war” for reasons of defense. But it sets a number of very strict and reasonable conditions: there must be a proper proportion between the evil to be rooted out and the means employed. In short, if in order to defend a value (in this case, national security) greater damage is caused (civilian victims, destabilization of the Middle East, with its accompanying risks of increased terrorism), then recourse to force is no longer justified. In light of these criteria, Ratzinger refuses to grant the moral status of just war to the military operation against Saddam Hussein.
[He] . . . added another consideration: “Decisions like this should be made by the community of nations, by the UN, and not by an individual power.” '
Hat tip to Justin Raimondo.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/17/2008 08:21:00 AM
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9 Comments:
Oh, the Inquisition didn't have much of a moral standing either. I'm glad the Pope sees the mess we're in for what it is and I'm desperate for ANY anti Bush/war support, but the priest scandals and denials, the ant-gay stance and his own past are serious issues for me. Yesterdays photo ops were of two leaders in desperate need of a boost in the polls. As a former alter boy I'm dubious.
I suppose this means that some US Catholic Bishops will be refusing communion to those who voted for the Iraq war.
I wish there were more from my chruch, a lot more, but this helps just a little.
We need to leave Iraq completely! There is more violence today, of course.
Compare/contrast pope Benedict with pope Urban, who called for the first crusade...
-No chance for the pope to increase the lands controlled by the papacy in europe this time by thinning out the population of the feudal nobility.
-Also, the 2nd goal, asserting Rome's doctrinal primacy over Constantinople is also moot.
The 4th crusade was about eliminating an obstacle to Venetian economic growth.
Ironically, the general who led the initial campaign in this war, Tommy Franks, has a surname that is synonymous with 'Crusader' as both the Greeks (Byyzantines) and the Arabs of the Levant and Syria called the crusaders "Franks" - they were never termed 'Crusaders' in the East.
-At the end of the 1st World War, England and France were set to carve up the Ottoman empire according to the terms of the Sykes-Picot agreement) with Britain getting Constantinople, most likely. This repeated the economic goal of the 4th Crusade, but in the 20th century. However, Attaturk reorganized the military and defeated the armies of occupation, which was not in the game plan of Britain and France. It was assumed that the whole empire would be partitioned like Lebanon. If that had happened, Istanbul would have become a 21st century Beirut.
I wonder what position the church took in 2002-2003. I don't remember.
hmmm
you are not supposed to touch
the Pope. bush is shown touching
el pope- bush has real psychological problems. he must realize deep in one of his personal abysses that he has like faust has sold his soul to mephistopheles.
curious that he thinks touching
the vicar of Christ on earth is going
to save him from?
from that
unformed part of his self.
rattzinger was pope john's addington.
If the pope had any credibility he would have been screaming himself blue in the face about the Iraq War and other Bush atrocities for the past five years.
"All I can say..." says it all.
The Catholic Church needs to dump all its money and absurd heirarchy and political gamesmanship and come down to street level where real people live. Until then, it will just continue to disappear into irrelevancy.
"The Catholic Church needs to dump all its money and absurd heirarchy and political gamesmanship and come down to street level where real people live. Until then, it will just continue to disappear into irrelevancy."
Could not agree more. However, remember the fate of the Liberation Theologists in Latin America during the Reagan reign of terror. No reason to think it would not happen again, particularly since many of those despicable Reaganites are still wheeling a lot of power behind the scenes today. The Catholic Church is just another nauseating component of the power structure. Personally, I could give a flying @#&* about the frigging Pope.
To answer an earlier post's question, the last popester (John Paul II or whatever) was against the war. Definitively, as I recall. There weren't many of us back then.
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