But first, I wanna make a little notation: Pope Benedict XVI wrote a book called Jesus of Nazareth--an in it he said ya'll doan have ter believe in Jesus if you have a good reason not to....heh heh...see? He is sorta sandbaggin', ya know?
He knows there ain't no real reason, but ain't it intrigin' that it is the Pope who invites folks to reason--to do some thinkin' at a deep level, to use yore brains to reason stuff out. Ever'body thinks faith is the antithesis of reason, bit that jes' ain't right. Faith and reason belong together--I mean, ain't it reasonable to admit ya' did not give your ownself a mind or capacitity ter reason?
Okay..well, here are some snips on war:
"...sin ruins ever anew this divine project (the created order), causing division and introducing death into the world. Thus humanity succumbs to the temptations of the evil One and wages war against itself. Patches of 'hell' (War)are consequently also created in this marvelous 'garden' which is the world."
Speaking at a German cemetery: "As Germans we are grieved by the fact that their (dead soldiers') idealism, their enthusiasm, and their loyalty to the State were exploited by an unjust regime" (Naziism)
At Caen, France (Normandy) June 5, 2004, then Josef Ratzinger analyzed the morality fighting World War II. Ratzinger noted that life under Nazism as "a dominion of lies." "No one could confide in anyone else, because everyone, in a way, had to protect himself under a mask of lies that, on the one hand, served the purpose of self-defense but tended, on the other hand, to strengthen the power of evil....
Thus it was necessary for the whole world to intervene in order to break the cycle of criminality and to reestablish liberty and law. "
And, "We Germans too give thanks that liberty and law were restored to us through that military operation. If ever in history there was a just war, this was it: the Allied intervention ultimately benefited also those against whose country the war was waged."
"...on the basis of a historical event that absolute pacifism is unsustainable."
On Terrorism: "We can no longer count on such reasoning , because the readiness to engage in self-destruction is one of the basic components of terrorism—a kind of self-destruction that is exalted as martyrdom and transformed into a promise...One cannot put an end to terrorism—a force that is opposed to the law and cut off from morality—solely by means of force. It is certain that, in defending the law against a force that aims to destroy law, one can and in certain circumstances must make use of proportionate force in order to protect it."
And, (on Terrorism)
"An absolute pacifism that denies the law any and all coercive measures would be capitulation to injustice, would sanction its seizure of power, and would abandon the world to the dictates of violence."
(Ha! Ain't never heard THAT on CNN did'ja?)
ON the Europe's death spiral and refusal to defend Western values:
"Here we notice a self-hatred in the Western world that is strange and that can be considered pathological; yet, the West is making a praiseworthy attempt to be completely open to understanding foreign values, but it no longer loves itself; from now on it sees its own history only as a blameworthy and destructive...."
Iffin' any of ya'll would care to read a very fine explication of the Pope's thoughts on war and reason in the face of our current crisis, check out the essay of an incomparable political philosopher, James V. Schall. S.J.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/schall_benxvieurope_aug07.asp
