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PDF versionPax Christi bishop cites 'new disarmament moment'
Bishop Gabino Zavala questions morality of nuclear deterrence
Mar. 12, 2009
Zavala at Pax Christi gathering (CNS photo)
New political circumstances are giving rise to “great hope” for “dramatic and fundamental changes in U.S. nuclear weapons policies,” said Bishop Gabino Zavala of Los Angeles in an address March 11 that marked the start of a new disarmament campaign by Pax Christi USA, the Catholic peace organization.
Zavala, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and bishop-president of Pax Christi, also called Catholics to see peacemaking as a “mandatory” vocation and argued that “Catholic social teaching and a vision of Gospel nonviolence can contribute to informing the policy debates and offer guidance for new directions for our nation with regard to war and peace.”
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Full text of speech by Bishop Gabino Zavala
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In a speech delivered at the University of Great Falls in Great Falls, Mont., Zavala recalled the 1983 pastoral of the U.S. bishops, “The Challenge of Peace,” and subsequent documents based on it as well as the consistent condemnation of war by modern popes.
The pastoral was written during a time of nuclear standoff between the then-Soviet Union and the United States, when Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was the mechanism assuring restraint by the superpowers. The bishops then said they tolerated the policy of deterrence only as an interim strategy and “as a step on the way to a progressive disarmament.”
Subsequent documents, recalled Zavala, “specified that ‘progressive disarmament’ must mean a commitment to eliminating nuclear weapons, not simply as an ideal, but as a concrete policy goal.”
The end of the Cold War, however, did not open a path to progressive disarmament. The bishops’ subsequent assessments found that the policy of nuclear deterrence “had been institutionalized” and “had become the very ‘long term basis for peace’ that we rejected in the 1983 pastoral,” Zavala said. “And we found that the role of nuclear weapons had been expanded in the post-Cold War period well beyond the narrow role of deterring the use of nuclear weapons by others to include a whole range of missions including protecting so-called ‘vital interests.’”
Zavala pointed to a speech in May 2005 by the Vatican’s representative at the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, as marking a “sea change in Catholic moral teaching on nuclear weapons.”
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In the speech, Migliore questioned the morality of nuclear deterrence and said the Vatican acceptance of the strategy was conditioned on it being “only a step on the way toward progressive nuclear disarmament. The Holy See has never countenanced nuclear deterrence as a permanent measure, nor does it today when it is evident that nuclear deterrence drives the development of ever newer nuclear arms, thus preventing genuine nuclear disarmament.”
Citing a meeting last December in Paris in which international political, military and other leaders launched the disarmament initiative “Global Zero” and the often noted joint statement by former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Schultz with former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn and former secretary of defense William Perry endorsing nuclear abolition, Zavala said “we are in a new moment regarding nuclear disarmament.”
He said he saw hope for such fundamental changes in U.S. policy as ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, “long sought goals of taking deployed nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert status, negotiating a fissile materials cut-off treaty, and amending the Moscow Treaty to make its proposed cuts in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals real and irreversible.” All are possible, he said, “given the new administration and Senate.”
“In the past two decades,” said Zavala, “the social teaching of the Catholic Church has become increasingly pointed in its condemnation of war as a means to resolving conflict. Wars of aggression are understood as intrinsically immoral; and preventive wars waged in anticipation of some future threat are regarded also as particularly immoral.” The bishop was especially critical of the war in Iraq and “claims of success” that ignore the enormous human costs. “Although launched under the guise of the war on terror,” he said, “it served to fan terrorism, as even a CIA report several years back acknowledged, and it provoked the unraveling of an ancient nation.”
He was also critical of President Obama’s intent to send 17,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan. “This was done just a few days after he called f or a two-month comprehensive review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan,” Zavala said. “While the situation in Afghanistan is very dangerous and complex, it feels very premature to begin a dramatic deployment of troops before the comprehensive review has barely begun.”
Zavala said it is now up to people of faith “to give voice to alternatives to war, to elevate a prophetic vision of nonviolence, and to work for it – with urgency. … Why not elevate ‘nonviolence’ as a strategy in the political discourse?”
The talk was co-sponsored by the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings. Information on the Pax Christi disarmament campaign can be found at the Pax Christi website. According to the peace organization, the campaign will be aimed at increasing public awareness of the issue and enabling leaders in the Catholic community “to influence the debate and policy formation on U.S. nuclear weapons” as the Obama administration gets underway.
Roberts is NCR Editor at Large.
All that the world really
All that the world really needs is Christ's love. Grace and Peace with prayers always...
Here's what change means.
Here's what change means.
Today: The situation in Afghanistan is very complex
Two years ago: It's an illegal war.
And here's how to change an illegal war into a complex situation:
1.) Elect a president who promotes partial birth abortion.
2.) Send in a division of infantry
3.) Use predator robots to take out some villages.
I'm sorry I am not sure I can
I'm sorry I am not sure I can understand your point, Chaynes.
I would comment that Afghanistan was, unless one is a complete pacifist, the legitimate war with the goal of defeating/controlling those who had attacked the USA (Al Qaeda). Iraq was the pre-emptive and in my opinion illegitimate war which undermined our Afghanistan goals.
And, yes, it is a complex situation, especially with the developments in Pakistan.
By the way, I was in several parts of Afghanistan for my work just before the Iraq war began; Afghanistan was on its way toward recovery.
sorry friend, but Obama never
sorry friend, but Obama never called the war in Afghanistan illegal. If anything, he called it "ignored".
I thank God that there is at
I thank God that there is at least one Catholic Bishop, Bp Zavala, with the foresight and courage to oppose sending more troops into the quagmire of Afghanistan.
May God continue to guide and strengthen him and Pax Christi.
God Bless
Not all of the Catholic
Not all of the Catholic Bishops in America seem to agree with Bishop Zavala.
Luke 11:17 - "But he knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house."
There appears to be atleast ONE (Ex-Jesuit) Bishop in Madison, who appears to have different views than Bishop Zavalahave, with reagrd to the School of the Americas. This Bishop at Madison has managed to stir up some recent controversy (as though the Catholic Church in America has NOT been dragged to the gutter already!!) by firing a Female Pastoral Associate over a Dissertation written five years ago in a Seminary...
http://www.madisoncatholicherald.org/2006-11-16/bishop.html
WHINSEC: Bishop Morlino talks about school in podcast
By Kathleen Bushman
CATHOLIC HERALD STAFF
MADISON -- Every year, thousands descend upon Fort Benning, Ga., to gather outside the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) to protest alleged human rights abuses they say have occurred by people trained at the former School of the Americas.
As part of their coverage of the event, National Catholic Reporter (NCR) talked with Bishop Robert C. Morlino about WHINSEC. Bishop Morlino was appointed last year to the Board of Visitors for WHINSEC, an external review board that reports to Congress. He made his annual visit to the school October 30 to November 3.
The podcast of Bishop Morlino's interview with Tom Fox of NCR, recorded before the visit, is available at ncrcafe.org/node/613 along with their other coverage of the event.
The following are some of the excerpts of the interview:
Response to protesters
"I think I understand their perceptions," Bishop Morlino said of the protesters. "I give them the benefit of the doubt. I am certain they believe what they claim on those videos and I'm sure that they have some reasons for that.
"But from my vantage point I don't really understand it. I understand their perceptions but I don't understand the particular focus and intensity on this situation.
"To be quite honest about it, I have only very marginal awareness about the claims that were made about the School of the Americas until I was passed to serve on the Board of Visitors," he said. "But I had no idea of the intensity of the people's concerns about this particular issue and I got quite a good education on that once the word got out that I had accepted being on the Board of Visitors.
"I guess I don't want to make it sound as though I accepted the position naively; I mean I knew there were protests out there and I was told by several people quite directly that if I accepted this, I could expect to become a target of criticism," he said. "And I was well briefed on that before I did it so I did not accept the invitation to be on the Board of Visitors in the dark in any sense.
"I don't call their Catholic conviction into question in any shape or form. But I guess where I have question is in their reading of evidence," Bishop Morlino said of the protesters. "Despite what people say, I do know there have been some real concrete changes since the main transformation from the School of the Americas to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation."
Supporting WHINSEC
Asked whether he supported WHINSEC, Bishop Morlino responded: "Insofar as the goal of the school is to give training in military science, discipline, and human rights to those who would be soldiers or officers in the armies of Latin American countries and insofar as the goal is to build a certain rapport between those individuals and the roles they will fulfill and the U.S. military, yes I do.
"I don't support any alleged atrocity that might have been committed by anyone ever associated with the school," Bishop Morlino said.
"What has happened in the past is some of the graduates of the school used their training to go back and commit atrocities; that's a fact and I don't deny that," he said. "But I have no reason to believe that was the intent of the training.
"I have seen no evidence whatsoever," he said, "that the training of the School of the Americas caused the atrocities. However, people can take skills that are oriented toward discipline, proper military science and human rights. They can take those skills and use them in a bad way if they're already bad apples.
"Even now, one of the more recent developments is that the candidates that come into WHINSEC are screened through the State Department . . . precisely to make sure we're not getting a bad apple to begin with," he said.
Setting standards
"The main reason I was asked to be on this board was because I have a background in moral theology; there has been a Catholic concern about morals and justice with this school, and what was basically said to me was, 'Here, you have your say,'" Bishop Morlino said. "And that's why I accepted membership on the board - so that I could have my say if I thought that anything was defective in terms of morals or justice at the school."
He said that the board reports to Congress and then Congress assures that standards are met. But, he said, "if I couldn't see that steps were being taken to correct what I find truly objectionable, I would resign and I would do it with a fuss; I wouldn't do it quietly."
Asked whether military standards should be held to the same level of accountability as Catholic standards, Bishop Morlino said, "Yes, insofar as Catholic Christian standards are the reflection of the natural law. In other words, we can't impose distinctive Catholic beliefs or distinctive Catholic practices on the military."
Purpose of school
One instance in which there was a discrepancy was a simulator where trainees are taught the threshold for the use of lethal force. "I would have to say that the threshold that they are trained in for the use of lethal force is higher than the threshold that ordinary Catholic moral sensitivity would require in terms of self-defense," he said.
"The purpose is defense of their own country," the bishop said. "The threshold for lethal force in that instance is a very high threshold, and really calls upon the young women and men to be heroic when their lives are at risk."
He has not seen sufficient evidence to justify claims of atrocities, Bishop Morlino said. "If people want to take very fine training and use it to commit atrocities, they can," he said. "They learn many skills there that would help them to be a better terrorists, if they want to. But I don't see anything in the school itself that develops that attitude in a person."
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If the Catholic Bishops of America are divided among themselves, how does one expect the Laity to have the right views on such issues?
God bless,
M Francis
Popes John Paul II and
Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have consistently and loudly proclaimed the gospel of peace. Yet the so-called peace movement usually ignores their messages because they care more about the social-political dynamics of pacifism, liberalism, and relativism. When it comes to peace, we should listen to Pope Benedict and his predecessors.
okay! Especially predecessors
okay!
Especially predecessors like the Blessed Pope John XXIII and his encyclical Pacem in Terris!
and Pope Paul VI On the Progress of PEoples!
I certainly believe we need
I certainly believe we need to move toward less military action and more diplomacy to solve problems among nations and I think our new adminstration is doing that, perhaps not as some would like, but moving in the right direction. With further encouragement and pressure from our citizens, I feel confident we can make even more progress.
I can't see however that falsely labeling our president as "promoting" partial birth abortion has anything to do with the issue. There is no one in the government that "promotes" abortion. As I understand it, the Supreme Court said that the area of abortion is not a matter for the government to declare illegal, even though many, if not most, consider it immoral. There are many things that Catholics, Christians and others consider immoral: divorce and remarriage, adultery, pre-marital sex for example, that are not illegal. I think that is a distinction that needs to be made.
Dear Eleanor777 If paying for
Dear Eleanor777
If paying for abortion isnt promoting it, what is?
Please tell me where
Please tell me where President Obama is "paying" for abortion.
Thank you for keeping us
Thank you for keeping us informed!
Dear Eleanor777 President
Dear Eleanor777
President Obama is paying for abortions in foreign countries. President Bush had banned that, but the Democrats wanted it overturned.
They support abotion "unequivocally, to use the word in their platform. Evidently you were unaware of that.
The aid from the United
The aid from the United States does not pay for abortions. That is forbidden according to law. The aid goes for general services at a clinic.
It has always fascinated me
It has always fascinated me WHY the Church needs a separate peace group, we should all be Pax Christi. Truly shameful that the Bishops do not embrace peace and have become a one issue Church with little regard for the already born, only the blob in a women's belly. I would gladly donate eggs for stem cell research to save an already born person.
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