{"id":6489,"date":"2006-08-16T16:32:34","date_gmt":"2006-08-16T16:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/08\/no-good-war.html"},"modified":"2006-08-16T16:32:34","modified_gmt":"2006-08-16T16:32:34","slug":"no-good-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/08\/no-good-war.html","title":{"rendered":"No “good war?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert T. Miller wonders<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n

On August 1, I criticized Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s call for a ceasefire<\/span><\/u><\/a> in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Since then, he has granted an interview to some German journalists<\/span><\/u><\/a> in anticipation of his upcoming trip to Bavaria. Asked about the fighting in the Middle East, he said in part:<\/p>\n

We do want to appeal to all Christians and to all those who feel touched by the words of the Holy See, to help mobilize all the forces that recognize how war is the worst solution for all sides. It brings no good to anyone, not even to the apparent victors. We understand this very well in Europe, after the two world wars.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/blockquote>\n
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I find it difficult to understand how the pope says this. Along with many others, I often invoke the Second World War as the paradigm example of a just war, of a case where morality not only permitted but required the use of armed force in order to combat evil. But here Benedict, expressly mentioning the world wars, says that they brought no good to anyone. No good to Elie Wiesel, and all the other prisoners liberated from Buchenwald? No good to the peoples of France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and others saved from Nazi domination? No good to the Poles and other Slavs, destined to slavery to support the Third Reich? No good to the young Joseph Ratzinger, who, freed from service in the Wehrmacht, was able to enter seminary, study theology, become a priest and a professor, and live to become pope?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/blockquote>\n
<\/blockquote>\n

An excellent, clarifying discussion over at Mark Shea’s comment boxes. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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