Can Catholics resist persecution?

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Let us also remember the usher in the Protestant church in USA recently who fought a gunman who had killed someone in the parking lot and then came into the church full of people firing guns. The usher fought the man, who somehow ended up shot during the struggle, and then the usher got his own gun and held the man at gunpoint till the police arrived.
 
A passage in Luke 4 comes to mind when Jesus is taken to the side of a cliff with the intention to kill Him and He walks past them and continues His way.
There is this sense of mission in Him…
This passage often comes to mind when threads like this crop up
 
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I like that one too. Jesus slipped out and I think there was something unusual about how He got away? Yeah, as it relates to the topic. I think Christ would have to lead me to that kind of sacrifice. It would probably have to be a long path with a bit of dragging for Him to do.😬
 
Curious11 said:
Okay, while this was a good answer and I thank you for it, I still have a couple of doubts. First, the catechism says that a civil authority can render an unjustified aggressor unable to cause harm, but say that this civil authority is the one to carry out that aggression or supports the aggressor’s actions. Can Catholics rebel or take matters into their own hands not killing but maybe detaining them, or must they act the way Paul and Peter did and allow themselves to get martyred?

Second, can you defend yourself if only your life and no one else’s is in peril?
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Catechism
Legitimate defense

2263 The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. "The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life; and the killing of the aggressor. . . . The one is intended, the other is not."65

2264 Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one’s own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:
If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful. . . . Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s.66
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10 thugs walk into a church. The leader points at the priest and says “this is our church now boy.”

The priest pulls out two AK 47s made of pure gold that he keeps tucked away behind the alter and says “you didn’t think the Christian was a pacifist did you?”

The leader of the gang says “sorry, wrong church”, and leaves.

The Moral of this poorly written story is, Catholics are not pacifists. Although ideally we would like to avoid violence.
 
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Very illustrative story. Thank you. It seems to me that people somehow believe Jesus was a pacifist, but then why did he not only NOT condemn the centurion for being in the army but actually praised his incredible faith? In my view, Jesus was not a pacifist, but a lover of peace, not the same thing!!
 
You’re completely right. Even Peter, the very rock, denied Jesus 3 times. We cannot judge people for their actions in such circumstances, but hope we never find ourselves in it
 
People can only afford to be pacifists because there are people willing to defend them with their very lives!!!. While i understand that some people would rather die than potentially kill somebody in self defense, Pacifism as a morality is delusional. Anybody that is responsible for the lives of others would understand that. We live in a violent world.
 
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Amen, we should thank god for the military and others who defend us with their lives
 
So what if you are forced to shut down your cake or pizza business because the government shuts you down? You and your family go into a more impoverished state (of existence). Later at your corporate job you are required to sign a document that you affirm you have no moral reservations with abortion or SSM, you refuse. Now, jobless and blacklisted (unemployable) your family is on the brink of destitute, sure the government didn’t kick in your door and demand you bow to the emperor’s image but sounds a lot like religious persecution. What are we to do?

Now start over, the court demands you make cakes or shutdown. You refuse, and a few weeks later the sheriff shows up at your shop and says they have to shut down your shop. Do you kneel or do you go to your safe…
 
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