Can U.S. Catholics go to war with Iraq?

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October 2002

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Can US Catholics go to war with Iraq?
In deciding how to balance Bishop Wilton Gregory's recent letter to President Bush with their duties as American service members, US Catholics in the military may be facing some tough decisions in the coming months. Gregory is President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Though Gregory's September 13 letter to Bush did not specifically address the issue of participation of individual Catholics in an impending conflict with Iraq, it did note that the current confrontation fell far short of the requirements of the church's just war teachings.

"The bishops are very clear in saying that they find it difficult to justify the use of military force absent some clear evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks of September 11 or some imminent threat from Iraq," said Gerard Powers, the director of the USCCB's Office of International Justice and Peace.

Gregory's letter to Bush outlined why a preemptive attack on Iraq failed to meet a number of standards of just war principles, but Powers called Gregory's analysis a "prudential judgment" based on what is known to the bishops at this time. But "they're religious leader, not intelligence experts," Power said, adding that new evidence or new events could quickly redirect church policy on the confrontation with Iraq.

"People of good will may and do have differing opinions," Powers said. "The bishops are wrestling with a difficult issue as they hope others are. In relating Catholic moral positions to the challenges here, their judgment is that they would find military preemptive force hard to justify.

"The bishops would hope that Catholics in the military would [prayerfully consider] how Catholic teaching on war and peace applies to this case and then come to their own conscientious decisions about whether they can in good conscious participate in this war," Powers said. One of the problems Catholic service members would face, he added, is that "there is no procedure in US law that allows for selective objection," so that current Catholic service members would be left with no option "other than to disobey orders."

In his letter to Bush, Bishop Gregory recalled the situation one year ago when the then-President of the USCCB, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, said the use of force against Afghanistan could be justified if it were carried out in accord with just war norms and as one part of a much broader, mostly nonmilitary effort to deal with terrorism.

"We believe Iraq is a different case," Gregory wrote. "Given the precedents and risks involved, we find it difficult to justify extending the war on terrorism to Iraq, absent clear and adequate evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks of September 11th or of an imminent attack of a grave nature.

"The United States and the international community have two grave moral obligations: to protect the common good against any Iraqi threats to peace and to do so in a way that conforms with fundamental moral norms," Gregory wrote. "We have no illusions about the behavior or intentions of the Iraqi government," he continued. "Mobilizing the nations of the world to recognize and address Iraq's threat to peace and stability through new UN action and common commitment to ensure that Iraq abides by its commitments is a legitimate and necessary alternative to the unilateral use of military force," he added.

While welcoming Bush's decision to seek UN action, "other question of ends and means must also be answered," Gregory noted. "Is it wise to dramatically expand traditional moral and legal limits on just cause to include preventive or preemptive uses of military force to overthrow threatening regimes or to deal with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction?" He emphasized that, "War against Iraq could have unpredictable consequences not only for Iraq but for peace and stability elsewhere in the Middle East," and "use of massive military force to remove the current government of Iraq could have incalculable consequences for a civilian population that has suffered so much from war, repression, and a debilitating embargo.

"We respectfully urge you to step back from the brink of war and help lead the world to act together to fashion an effective global response to Iraq's threats that conforms with traditional moral limits on the use of military force."—Kevin Clarke

For more:
An action alert from the USCCB on the Iraq war resolution
USCCB on just war tradition

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