Just War Theory from the Prayerful Posse: The Bishops Miss the Mark

At this point, I'm inclined to think the war in Iran was a mistake.

Bitter Zeal: A Temptation for All of Us!

Yesterday's Mass homily focused on sins of the tongue. St. James in his epistle has plenty to say about that, comparing the tongue to the rudder of a mighty ship. The rudder may be small, but bears a large impact on the ship's movement and position. So does the tongue which may very well be responsible for more sins than any other organ in the body. 

On the Attack in Syria: Where are We Going?

Updating Just War Theory

This article was written before the attack on Syria by the U.S. The talking heads are all yelling at each other. I remember being totally confused about the Vietnam War which was raging when I graduated from college. One of my classmates lost her fiance in the Tet Offensive. I stood in the stairwell at the Main Navy building on Constitution Ave. in D.C. and watched one of the anti-war marches going by feeling totally confused about the morality of the war.

Do things never change? I hope you are praying your rosary today for world peace.

Chris Manion on Catholics, War, and Unintended Consequences

Great article! How many just wars have there been in history? Darn few is my guess!

Catholics, War, and Unintended Consequences
by Christopher Manion
fitzgerald griffin foundation

FRONT ROYAL, VA — The recent unpleasantness in eastern Ukraine recalls a nagging truth: Wars always bring unintended consequences, and Americans have seen plenty of them, firsthand.

In 1916, Woodrow Wilson won reelection on the slogan, “He Kept Us Out Of War!”

But Wilson wanted war, and, five months later, he got it.

In October 1940, late in the presidential campaign, Franklin Roosevelt promised “again and again and again” that “your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”

But Roosevelt wanted war, and fourteen months later, he got it.

Pope Saint John Paul II adamantly opposed the war, and sent Cardinal Pio Laghi, to meet with Bush personally. ...Laghi told Bush that his proposed war in Iraq would be a “disaster.”

The results were as grim as they were unintended. Over a hundred thousand Americans died in Wilson’s war, and another 600,000 died from the epidemic of influenza that the surviving troops brought back from Europe to every corner of America. World War II killed over 400,000 Americans (only the War Between the States had more).

Moreover, the onerous terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles opened the door to a Communist Russia and a National Socialist Germany. In like fashion, the deals reached by FDR and Truman during World War II at Yalta, Teheran, and Potsdam handed over 100 million Christians in Eastern Europe to Stalin for 45 years.

Read more here.