By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Hmph. War again. In the Middle East. Again.

It’s doubtful that the world will ever be free of war, and war is certainly tragic, regardless of the reasons for it or how “surgical” it is. I can’t help but think of the opening scene of the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” when the prehistoric proto-human picks up the bone and realizes he can use it as a weapon to kill … and we’ve been killing one another with weapons ever since. It’s that seemingly primordial desire to dominate for mates, territory, resources; we see it everywhere in nature. But you’d think we could lament the historical carnage enough to avoid it by now.

Sad that we as a whole species cannot elevate ourselves above such primitive urges to the higher plane of mutual support and cooperation. I’ve always been rather mystified (well, at least curious) why contrary regimes such as North Korea, Cuba and Iran don’t partner more closely with the more prosperous nations of the world. Imagine if we all worked together, and then those leaders could become not only wealthier than they ever hoped but also be regarded as heroes by their own people and history. Ah … but there’s that seemingly inescapable desire for unrestricted power that drives so many in history. As the saying goes, some leaders would burn their countries to the ground if only they can rule over the ashes.

Last week’s attacks on Iran elicit debate once again as did the operation to capture Maduro in Venezuela; namely, that if a government is severely oppressing its own people (estimates of over 30,000 Iranians killed by that regime recently) and fomenting terrorism in various areas (supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi), how can the world community best minimize future loss of life? After all, do we not have a duty to defend the defenseless? Would you resort to force to stop a violent assault of a helpless person, or rather sit by trying to reason with the offender? Is it moral to sit by and do nothing: “Well…it’s their problem.” Jesus teaches “Love thy neighbor”, of course … but when peaceful neighbor is attacked or threatened by violent neighbor, what is the Christian responsibility?

Some advocate pacifism regardless of cost, but history shows that appeasement certainly doesn’t work; just ask Lloyd George and Europe in 1939, or Israel’s cession of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in 2005. Or we might remember a past administration’s “pallets of cash” payments of almost two billion dollars and release of Iranian funds—likely coming back now to us as missiles fired at our own forces.

This seems a good time to review what the Catholic Church, at least, considers necessary for a “just war”—the strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force; these are found and expounded in the Catholic Catechism, paragraph 2309 for further reference. That theory states that at one and the same time:

• The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
• All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
• There must be serious prospects of success; and
• The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.

Obviously the judgment on whether these conditions are met can be quite subjective.

To me it seems that there’s a well-intentioned, yet potentially disastrous, naivete pervading Western society. Permeated with Christian ethics for over a thousand years (however imperfectly they’ve been practiced), we expect those from other areas of the world to have our cultural senses of honor, fairness, propriety, integrity, charity, desire for peace, etc. Additionally, we want to be fair and tolerant ourselves of different cultures manifesting themselves within our own.

But many of the world’s people exist in survival mode or have vastly different cultures than our own, acquiring what they can, when they can, however they can. Many couldn’t care less about what we believe is right. While in the U.S. people have conniptions over safe spaces and pronouns, throughout the world are horrors occurring to many people with scarcely a notice. In many countries we see women beaten and abused (sometimes killed) by husbands and family members, forbidden to work or attend school, girls having arranged marriages before they’re in their teens. Homosexuals thrown from roofs. Slavery is still not uncommon, caste systems still frequent. Food stolen from the starving. And so forth. I find it ironic that while people condemn Israel for Gaza, little is heard about the slaughter of Nigerian Christians or, indeed, of those in Iran who oppose(d) the recent regime.

Of course we should work for peace. But when you have those who proclaim that their goal is to destroy nations and peoples (“Death to Israel! Death to America”), and as nuclear weapons are almost within their grasp, it’s folly—if not suicidal—to put all hope in hope of their reasonability or restraint, especially as missile technology puts no place out of reach. So … the world keeps trying to plug holes in the peace dike, as it were, hoping and praying that it doesn’t one day collapse to immerse the whole world in fire.

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.