• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Bishop Robert Barron
          • George Weigel
          • Question Corner
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Suzanna Molino Singleton
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Paul McMullen
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Father T. Austin Murphy Jr.
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • Subscribe
Displaced Iraqis rest amid rubble after fleeing fighting between Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service forces and Islamic State militants May 15 in Mosul. (CNS photo/Danish Siddiqui, Reuters)

Military action against the Islamic State group?/ Protestant church once a year

Father Kenneth Doyle July 25, 2017
By Father Kenneth Doyle
Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner

Q: How does a Christian react to a terrorist group like the Islamic State group (IS)? Praying for their salvation is important, but it may not be sufficient.

Negotiating with them seems impossible, since IS is evidently determined to kill anyone who opposes their ideology. (We have seen this done by beheadings, bombings and other barbaric acts of violence.)

President Donald Trump has vowed to defeat IS through military means. Can a Christian support such a policy? (Edison, New Jersey)

A: Up until very recently, the traditional answer from the perspective of Christian morality would have applied the church’s long-held “just war doctrine.”

That teaching, first enunciated by the fourth-century theologian St. Augustine, is detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2309). The four conditions that would allow a military response to an unjust aggressor are these:

“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. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.”

But a Vatican conference in April 2016 has called into question the present validity of this just war teaching. That three-day symposium was jointly sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Catholic peace organization Pax Christi International, and, at its conclusion, the 80 participants voiced their opinion that today “there is no ‘just war.'”

That opinion seems largely based on the power of nuclear weaponry, which does not discriminate between combatants and noncombatants, and on the final provision of the just war doctrine, which holds that any use of weapons of war must never result in even greater evils.

All of this seems to argue for making military response an absolutely last possible resort. It also brings into play what Pope Francis told journalists in 2014 on a flight back to Rome from South Korea. Asked about Islamic State militants in Iraq, the pope seemed to endorse the United Nations as the competent authority to determine the legitimacy of military action, saying, “A single nation cannot judge how to stop this, how to stop an unjust aggressor.”

Q: My daughter is married and has four children. Her husband is not a Catholic, but he often attends Mass at the local Catholic parish with his wife and children. But at Christmas time, when they are visiting his parents, they all go together to the Lutheran church.

My daughter says God understands that family is important and that, especially at Christmas, they should all worship together. I worry, though, about the message this sends to the children — that it’s OK to go to the church of a different denomination and not receive the Eucharist. What is the right answer? (Rockwell City, Iowa)

A: Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say: “The faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin” (No. 2181).

Other situations commonly presented by church moralists include the necessity to work to support one’s family, personal sickness or the care of the sick, necessary travel — all of which might excuse a person on a particular occasion.

So your daughter’s pastor might well recommend that, on the occasion of an annual visit to her husband’s parents, the value of family harmony could allow for attendance at a Lutheran service rather than a Catholic Mass on that one particular day.

If the pastor agrees, and depending on the age of the children, your daughter might explain to them that, as Catholics, they believe in (and are grateful for) the importance of regular Sunday Mass but that, on this one occasion, it seems important for all of them to worship God together as a family.

Questions may be sent to Father Kenneth Doyle at askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 30 Columbia Circle Dr., Albany, New York 12203.

Read more “Question Corner” here.

Copyright ©2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Father Kenneth Doyle

Father Kenneth Doyle

Father Kenneth Doyle writes Question Corner for Catholic News Service. Questions may be sent to Father Kenneth Doyle at askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 30 Columbia Circle Dr., Albany, New York 12203.

View all posts from this author

Recent Commentary

Archbishop Lori reflects on the Year of St. Joseph

Reason for celibacy/ Blessing for non-sacramental marriage?

Pandemic Stories (or why there’s a Nerf gun in the tub)

A pandemic Lent, ox cookies, and Valentine’s gifts (7 Quick Takes)

Spiritual millionaires

Recent Local News

Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84

Archdiocese of Baltimore plans ‘Safe Haven Sunday’ to fight pornography

Pasadena parish cites pandemic in decision to close preschool

Father Snouffer, information technology trailblazer for archdiocese, dies at 83

‘Blessing bags’ a focal point for merged St. Casimir Parish during pandemic

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Archbishop Lori reflects on the Year of St. Joseph
  • Health care chaplains in Baltimore and beyond embrace self-care in COVID-19 work
  • Religious order withdraws request to transfer founder’s remains to U.S.
  • Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84
  • Reason for celibacy/ Blessing for non-sacramental marriage?
  • Archdiocese of Baltimore plans ‘Safe Haven Sunday’ to fight pornography
  • Heroes of love: New pathway open for future saints
  • Some English Catholics object to transfer of nun’s remains to Philadelphia
  • Bishops: If passed, Equality Act will ‘discriminate against people of faith
  • Pandemic Stories (or why there’s a Nerf gun in the tub)

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2021 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED