On Being a Christian Soldier
One thing that I miss from my previous assignment is preaching. At St. James I was able to give a 1 minute homily at weekday Masses, and preached each weekend. Here at Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony, they typically do not have a homily at weekday Masses, and our deacons preach two weekends a month. This, the fourth weekend in the month, would normally be a weekend for me to preach, however the bishop has told us to show the “Bishop’s Annual Appeal” video this weekend, and enough people to give money to the diocese. Alas, another weekend without a homily. Once I get moved into my room (they tell me Monday it will be done), I can start to unpack my boxes of books, and hopefully get more settled so that I can write a weekly reflection on the Scriptures, even if it is not my weekend to preach.
In the meantime, one of the neat things that the Diocese of Trenton has developed is RealFaith TV. It is a youth oriented program, with teenagers as the hosts/reporters, that is broadcasted on several TV stations within the Diocese. They also have a webpage (I believe I have a link to it on the side, but it is www.realfaithtv.org), which has some articles and from which you can download past episodes of the show (and it will not cost you $1.99 like some other shows will). One aspect of the webpage is the “Ask Father” column, where people can write in asking questions. The moderator of the site recently sent me a question from Kyle, a soldier currently serving in Iraq. He stated that he really felt that God was calling him to be a soldier, and he wanted to know if he might be off track in his thinking. Here is the response I wrote.
Dear Kyle,
First let me offer a prayer that you will, and your comrades, will remain safe as you continue your duty in Iraq. I also think it commendable that you have started to read the Bible again, and have started to pray more. If you do not already have it, may I recommend that you get a copy of FULTON SHEEN’S WARTIME PRAYER BOOK. Just ask your Catholic Chaplain if he has any (there is a group in the US raising money to provide them for free to any member of the Arm Services who wants it; http://sheen.catholicexchange.com/military.html). If the chaplain does not have any, just send your name and unit, and I will buy one to send to you.
Now to answer your question, in Matthew 5:21, Jesus recalls the commandment, “You shall not kill.” In doing so, our Lord is asking all of His followers to work for true peace of heart. You should also keep in mind that Jesus, as the anticipated Messiah, was referred to as the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:5), and He declared, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). Clearly the Christian must work for the promotion of peace, but what do we mean by peace?
A good place to look for the Church’s teaching on peace is the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC #2302-2306). Picking up from the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, the Catechism says that “Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries” (CCC #2304). In his classic book, The City of God, St. Augustine defined peace as “the tranquility of order.” This means that true peace “cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity” (CCC #2304).
Because of the injustices and evils that typically accompany all wars, the Church teaches that all governments and citizens are obliged to work for the avoidance of war (see CCC #2307-2308). However, due to the effects of Original Sin, the Church recognizes that the danger of war persists, therefore “governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed” (quoted in CCC #2308 from a document from the Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes #79 §4).
The Church makes a distinction between what in Latin is called, jus ad bellum (“just in going to war”) and jus in bellum (“just behavior in war”). The first deals with what is commonly known as the “Just War Doctrine.” Basically it states that four strict conditions must be met before competent public authorities, who have the responsibility for the common good, may be moral in fighting a war. These conditions are (taken from CCC #2309):
1. The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
2. All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
3. There must be serious prospects of success;
4. The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
Now, a thorough discussion of the “Just War Doctrine” is not possible in this response to your question. Also, I believe that you are asking more about jus in bellum, or can a Catholic/Christian be a soldier. The simple answer to your question is “yes.” The Catechism states (#2310), “Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace” (again this idea is taken from Gaudium et Spes #79 §5).
To honorably carry out one’s duty means to respect and treat humanely all non-combatants, wounded soldiers and prisoners. While the Church greatly values the virtue of obedience, especially to competent authorities, blind obedience is no excuse for following orders that would be contrary to faith and morals, especially if they violate the dignity of persons, for all people (even one’s “enemies”) are made in the image and likeness of God. The Christian soldier is morally required to resist orders that command genocide. Likewise, given the state of modern warfare – especially in terms of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons – the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas is unequivocally condemned by the Church as a crime against God and humankind (CCC #2313-2314).
I realize that this is a rather long answer to your question, however yours was a very serious question. Yes, you can be both a Christian and a soldier if in doing your duty as a soldier you also “love your enemies” as Jesus teaches us.
Yours in Christ with the Immaculata,
Fr. J.C. Garrett
Parochial Vicar
Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony Parish, Trenton
