Catholic Ahimsa?

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Pope_Noah_I said:
Can Catholicism promote Ahimsa, or total non-violence?
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I guess I am puzzled by your question. The Catholic tradition includes the idea that war is sometimes justly waged i.e. violence is sometimes justified. So at first glance I would say no.

But I see in the article that Hindus and Jains hold that non-violence is not the same as pacifism. They support the idea of self-defense, military service and even capital punishment.

So… you pose an interesting question. But why do you ask? What does the concept of ahimsa bring to the table that isn’t already part of being a Catholic Christian?
 
Pope_Noah_I said:
Can Catholicism promote Ahimsa, or total non-violence?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa#Modern_times
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From Pope Benedict’s new book, Jesus of Nazareth (page 80-81)
Let us pass over for the time being the second Beatitude listed in Matthew’s Gospel and go directly to the third, which is colely connectid with the first: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt 5:5) Some translations render the Greek word praus as “nonviolent” rather than “meek.” This is a narrowing of the Greek term, which carries a great wealth of tradition. The third Beatitude is practically a Psalm citation: “The meek shall possess the land” (Ps 37:11). The word praus in the Greek Bible translates the Hebrew anawim, which was used to designate God’s poor, of whom we spoke in connection with the first Beatitude. The first and the third Beatitudes thus overlap to a large extenr; the third Beatitude further illustrates an essential aspec of what is meant by poverty lived from and for God…
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…We are led even deep when we consider another set of interconnection between the Old and New Testaments based around the word praus, “meek”. In Zech 9:9-10, we read: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble [meek] and riding on an as-s, on a colt the foal of an as-s. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim…the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” This passage announces a poor kind – a kind whose rule does not depend on political and military might. His inmost beind is humility and meekness before God and men. In this he is the exact opposite of the great kings of the world. And a vivid illustration is the fact that he rides on an as-s – the mount of the poor, the counter-image of the chariot that he rejects. He is the king of peace and by God;s power, not his own…
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…Karl Elliger is therefore correct when he says that “through all the fog” we do " glimpse with surprising distinctness the figure of the one who has now really brought the whole world the peace that passes all understanding. He has done so in filial obedience: by renouncing violence and accepting suffering until he was released from it simply by the word of peace" (Das Alte Testament Deutsch, 24/25, p. 151)
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God bless,
Ut.

P.S. The Pope, is of course, not rejecting the Catholic doctrine of just war, which the church has worked out over many centuries, especially since it assumed a political ascendency.
 
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