In the lead-up to the United States' second military conflict in Iraq, Vatican leadership --- including that of Pope John Paul II --- made it clear that they were unconvinced that military intervention by the U.S. was morally justified.

In an address to the Diplomatic Corps at the Vatican on January 13, 2003, Pope John Paul II declared, "War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations" and can never be "decided upon except as the very last option and in accordance with very strict conditions."

On March 5, 2003, Cardinal Pio Laghi was sent as an ambassador from the Vatican to speak to President George W. Bush to make a final appeal for peace. Cardinal Laghi said after his meeting with Bush that a war would be "immoral ... illegal, unjust." A decision regarding the use of military force, the cardinal added, "can only be taken within the framework of the United Nations" (Catholic News Service, March 7, 2003).

Even after Bush initiated the use of military force, Pope John Paul continued to voice his opposition. On June 4, 2004, in an address to Bush who was visiting him in Rome, the pope told him, "You are very familiar with the unequivocal position of the Holy See in this regard, expressed in numerous documents, through direct and indirect contacts, and in the many diplomatic efforts which have been made since you first visited me…."

Perhaps most disheartening to the president and his supporters at the time was the fact that the Vatican refused to bestow the administration's plans for Iraq with the benediction of being a "just war."

To be sure, there were Catholic voices who opposed the position of the Holy Father and the Vatican. At least one Catholic columnist and ethicist chose to publicly dissent from the Holy Father's teaching and published a number of articles defending "preventative war" as an acceptable moral position that would justify a preemptive attack on Iraq.

Another Catholic ethicist, and a member of a Washington think tank, even went to Rome where Catholic News Service reported that he gave a symposium to Vatican officials in an attempt to convince them that an American attack on Iraq was a "just war."

'Just war' vs. 'peace building'
The interchange between the Vatican and Washington raised the question in the minds of many Catholics, both here and throughout the world, about how to understand and apply the "just war" tradition that has been part of Catholic teaching since St. Augustine began its development in the fourth century.

However, beyond a renewed interest in the laity in understanding what constitutes a "just war," it became clear that Catholic leadership was becoming more interested in helping Catholics move from a "minimalist" morality of "just war" to a "maximalist" morality of peace building. The common saying, "The best defense is a good offense," has been evolving in Catholic theology --- especially since the end of World War II and the advent of the nuclear arsenal --- to move the meaning of "offense" from a primary focus on superior military capability (offensive and defensive) to a renewed focus on superior "peace building."

In their 1983 pastoral on peace, The Challenge of Peace, the U.S. bishops raise the provocative question about whether there could ever really be a "just war" in a nuclear age, since the huge amount of innocent civilian casualties that would inevitably result from such a conflict could never be morally justified:

"A nuclear response to either conventional or nuclear attack can cause destruction which goes far beyond 'legitimate defense.' Such use of nuclear weapons would not be justified.… We therefore express our view that the first imperative is to prevent any use of nuclear weapons and our hope that leaders will resist the notion that nuclear conflict can be limited, contained, or won in any traditional sense" (n. 160, 161).

At the same time, the Church continues to teach that both individuals and societies have a right to "legitimate self defense." Embedded in this right is the "just war" theory, long accepted by the Church:

"The Fifth Commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war. All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.

"However, 'as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2307, 2308).

What did Jesus say?
Perhaps the best way to understand how 16 centuries of "just war" tradition is moving to a focus on "just peace" would be to begin with Jesus' teachings.

Jesus proclaimed to his disciples, "Blest too are the peacemakers; they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5: 9). This theme was woven throughout his teachings; the theme of non-violence is a clear challenge that he leaves to his Church:

---"Blest shall you be when people hate you, when they ostracize you and insult you and proscribe your name as evil because of the Son of Man. On the day they do so, rejoice and exult, for your reward shall be great in heaven" (Luke 6: 22-23).

---"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you and pray for those who maltreat you. When someone slaps you on one cheek, turn and give them the other; when someone takes your coat, let them have your shirt as well.… When someone takes what is yours, do not demand it back.… Love your enemy and do good…. Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned" (Luke 6: 27-36).

---"Put your sword back in its place, for all those who take up the sword perish by the sword" (Matthew 26: 52).

A question that Catholics must continue to wrestle with is how to integrate these clear teachings from Jesus into the complexities of the political situations that confront the human population around the globe, especially when the political leaders of one's country declare the nation to be at risk and are contemplating declaring war or otherwise engaging in the use of military force against another nation perceived as an aggressor.

However, Jesus also said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's but give to God what is God's" (Matthew 22: 21). And Jesus' righteous wrath erupted when he chased the merchants from the temple (John 2: 13-16).

How does this teaching and this action of Jesus participate in forming our consciences about acting rightly as Catholics, as authentic disciples of Christ?

Power and stewardship
What is clear are two points. First, this question Jesus asks about Caesar is obviously a rhetorical question and every politician needs to recognize it as such. In fact, everything, all creation, belongs to God. In reality, nothing belongs to Caesar. The best political leaders always recognize that they hold their power in stewardship and they answer to God also regarding their stewardship.

Secondly, stewardship implies moral boundaries. Caesar cannot demand that citizens render unto him that which only belongs to God. It is clear that from the Catholic perspective, war is never the best moral answer, but at best, only a toleration of the lesser of two evils.

In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI, made a statement, clearly embedded in the tradition of Catholic teaching, that was nevertheless a bit startling to some who may have been expecting something a bit more normatively directive:

"…it is not the Church's responsibility to make this (social) teaching prevail in political life. Rather, the Church wishes to help form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest."

Pope Benedict is convinced that by engaging in the formation of good consciences, Catholics who understand the consistent ethic of life and who believe that every human being has been created in the image of God, will bring these convictions into the political square. Catholics will see that peace building is integral to being pro-life.

The Catholic moral vision is one that ensures the protection of every human life from conception to natural death. War is the enemy of life. By moving from a focus on "just war" to a focus on "peace building," the Church is attempting to form good consciences that challenge all disciples of Jesus to take up their call to be blessed as peace makers. Peace, as always our primary goal and first choice, is foundationally pro-life.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church tells us, "Peace is a value and a universal duty founded on a rational and moral order of society that has its roots in God… Peace is not merely the absence of war, nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies. Rather it is founded on a correct understanding of the human person and requires the establishment of an order based on justice and charity" (n. 494).

The Church, the Compendium continues, is challenging Catholics to form a conscience in which the desire to act on behalf of peace is united fundamentally with a desire to act on behalf of justice: "Peace is the fruit of justice" (n. 494).

In her contemporary teaching, the Church makes it clear that it condemns "the savagery of war" (Gaudium et Spes, n. 77). "War is a scourge and is never an appropriate way to resolve problems that arise between nations, it has never been and it will never be" (John Paul II, L'Ossevatore Romano, Jan. 21, 1991).

Catholic peace-building
In April 2008, Notre Dame University hosted a conference on the future of Catholic Peace-building designed to "showcase and contribute to a larger effort to develop a conceptually coherent, theologically accurate, spiritually enlivening and practically effective approach to Catholic peace-building that can begin to match the sophistication of Catholic thinking on the ethics of war and peace." This is an example of the emergence of how "just peace" is coming more and more to the fore in Catholic theology and magisterial teaching.

Without abandoning the right of individuals and societies to self defense, the Church is beginning to more deeply and fully understand all the implications of the consistent ethic of life.

Preaching in word and action the salvation won by Jesus and working tirelessly for the end to abortion, the end of the death penalty, the end of war, the end of racial injustice, the end of hunger, the end of poverty and helping to build a just and lasting global peace, are all part of proclaiming the reign of God and are all part of the bringing the Good News to the poor.

Vincentian Father Richard Benson is academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo. His column appears monthly in The Tidings.