Airstrip One

Papal Favour

The Pope has called for Catholics to work against war in Iraq. In his Urbi et Orbi message he actually says a bit more than that:

Believers of all religions, together with men and women of good will, by outlawing all forms of intolerance and discrimination, are called to build peace:

Christmas is a mystery of peace!

From the cave of Bethlehem there rises today an urgent appeal to the world not to yield to mistrust, suspicion and discouragement, even though the tragic reality of terrorism feeds uncertainties and fears. in the Holy Land, above all, to put an end once and for all to the senseless spiral of blind violence, Believers of all religions, together with men and women of good will, by outlawing all forms of intolerance and discrimination, are called to build peace:

in the Holy Land, above all, to put an end once and for all to the senseless spiral of blind violence,

and in the Middle East, to extinguish the ominous smouldering of a conflict which, with the joint efforts of all, can be avoided;

in Africa too, where devastating famines and tragic internal conflicts are aggravating the already precarious conditions of entire peoples, although here and there signs of hope are present;

in Latin America, in Asia, in other parts of the world, where political, economic and social crises disturb the serenity of many families and nations.

So not quite the BBC's description of the statement (but you never trust them anyway), but still a call for peace. Now Pope John Paul II does not have a beard, which is always a tremendously good sign in any type of priest - but should this message be ignored as just the wittering of some Pacifist cleric while the real men worry about the real world.

Well the Catholic church is not like the liberal main stream Protestant sects, pacifism is not really popular with the leadership. The catholic concept of the Just War is taken seriously. This is a recognition that in this imperfect world that war is necesary, but dangerous on many levels. Essentially war should be waged, and commenced, with a just cause, a view to its end - and should be proportionate to both the cause and the end. Common sense, perhaps, but by no means common practice.

This approach actually fits in very easily into the realist viewpoint. Wars will happen, like human greed or natural disasters you may not like them but you can't legislate against them. However if you are going to go to war do it for an extremely good reason and don't have some airy-fairy open ended goal. On Iraq they've missed two out of two.

This is a sensible and time tested response to the reality of human nature. I just hope that our government, possibly the most Catholic influenced government since the Dutch Invasion of 1688, will listen.