As the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, perhaps a few more thoughts on the presence of ROTC on this Catholic, Jesuit campus might be appropriate.
There is no evidence before 180 BCE of any Christian serving in the Roman Imperial army (due to aversion to bloodshed and emperor worship).
But beginning with St. Ambrose (fourth century) and St. Augustine (fifth century) and through St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century) and the Spanish theologians Vitoria (16th century) and Suarez (17th century) up to Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris (1963) and more recent papal statements, the mainstream Catholic tradition has developed the ethical position that participation in war may sometimes be permissible and even obligatory for states and their Christian citizens.
Although nonviolence and individual pacifism are also honored in the Catholic tradition, it makes little historical sense to argue that preparation for military service (as in ROTC) is incompatible with the values of a Catholic institution. The Jesuit affiliation of this university doesn’t alter that at all.
But that tradition has become increasingly restrictive in its understanding of what circumstances would justify a war. That thinking is capsulized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (under its treatment of the fifth Commandment, Do not kill) and synthesized in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
The most extensive analysis is provided by the U.S. Catholic bishops’ 1983 pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace; 25 years later, the first chapter of that letter is still essential reading.
On the basis of this tradition of ethical evaluation, the Vatican, as well as the U.S. bishops, made it abundantly and repeatedly clear that they did not believe the invasion of Iraq could be morally justified.
That should put all U.S. Catholics – and not just Catholics in the military – in a crisis of conscience and allegiance. It simply will not do to support the policies of “my country, right or wrong.”
The problem is not the military anyway. The military carries out the policies of our elected civilian leaders. The ordinary solider is no more responsible for formulating national security policy than any of the rest of us.
We all pay for the resources to carry out those policies, including the salaries of military personnel. It simply will not do to point fingers at the ROTC program or its student-cadets as if they were the problem, or even a part of the problem.
To quote the immortal Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Don’t like the policies? Work to change them.
Unless you are prepared to refuse to pay that part of your federal taxes that goes to the military (I have a friend who lost her family home in the Colorado Rockies to the IRS because of her long-time practice of tax resistance), you can hardly expect students to give up their ROTC scholarships or the university to boot such a program from campus because of an alleged contradiction with Catholic values.
Don’t like the policies? Don’t support them (and suffer the consequences as a matter of conscience).
For 20 years, members of the Theology and Philosophy departments have offered a “morality of war seminar” to senior ROTC cadets, as mandated by the president of the university and as welcomed by all the chairs of the department of military science over that period.
That means, unless I am mistaken, that those cadets are the only students on campus who are required to have even a minimal acquaintance with the Catholic ethical tradition on war and peace.
Every fall I teach “Christian Ethics of War & Peace.” Both pacifists and soldiers with curious minds are welcome.
Dr. Roger Bergman
Director, Justice & Peace Studies Program