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The Catholic Church and the Arms Race

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2018

J. Bryan Hehir
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Abstract

No question of foreign affairs surpasses the arms race in terms of moral complexity and moral content. Along with the correlative issue of world poverty, the arms race forms the heart of the moral agenda of foreign policy. The Roman Catholic bishops of our country attach overriding significance to the arms race and its threat to the sacredness of life.

The massive technical complexity of the arms race in its political and strategic dimensions is something that people in our government grapple with daily. We respect that technical complexity and have tried to assimilate it in this testimony. At the same time, for the church the arms race is principally a problem defined in religious and moral categories. The specter of war, in any form, raises for Christian ethics the central question of the taking of human life.

Type
Articles
Information
Worldview , Volume 21 , Issue 7-8 , August 1978 , pp. 13 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1978

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References

1 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World(1965), para. 80.

2 Ibid.,para. 79.

3 Ibid.

4 For an explanation of the categories used in this moral doctrine, cf.J.C. Murray, We Hold These Truths(1960), pp. 249-73; P. Ramsey, The Just War(1968); R. Potter, The Moral Logic of War(no date).

5 Murray, op. cit.

6 Cf.P. Nitze, “The Strategic Balance Between Hope and Skepticism,” Foreign Policy,17 (1974-75), “Assuring Strategic Stability,” Foreign Affairs(January, 1976), and “Deterring Our Deterrent,” Foreign Policy,25 (1976- 77); H. Scoville, “Flexible Madness,” Foreign Policy,14 (1974), and “The SALT Negotiations,” Scientific American(August, 1977); P. Doty, A. Carnesale, M. Nacht, “The Race to Control Nuclear Arms,” Foreign Affairs(October, 1976); and A. Vershbow, “The Cruise Missile: The End of Arms Control?” Foreign Affairs(October, 1976).

7 Pastoral Constitution,para. 80, 81.

8 Para. 81.

9 U.S. Bishops, To Live in Jesus Christ(1976), p. 34.

10 Mission of the Holy See to the U.N., The Armaments Race(1976).

11 News Release, National Catholic Office for Information, April 14, 1978.

12 U.S. Catholic Conference, Statement of the Administrative Board, “The Gospel of Peace and the Danger of War,” 1978.

13 Vershbow, op. cit.

14 NCCB, A Call to Action: An Agenda for the Catholic Community(1977).

15 Congressional Research Service, Implications of President Carter's Conventional Arms Transfer Policy(September 22, 1977).