Catholic Morality in the Military

[JCP94]

Hello everybody,

I had a question. Is it immoral to serve in the military?

Apparently some of the vaccinations contain aborted fetal cells and sterilization in them, so that’s what has been turning me, and my parents, away from the idea.

Also, the idea of serving for our current President is making me a little unsure…

My overall question, am I thinking correctly? Or is this all conspiracy/rumors…?

Thank you!

 

[thistle]

Hello everybody,

I had a question. Is it immoral to serve in the military?

Apparently some of the vaccinations contain aborted fetal cells and sterilization in them, so that’s what has been turning me, and my parents, away from the idea.

Also, the idea of serving for our current President is making me a little unsure…

My overall question, am I thinking correctly? Or is this all conspiracy/rumors…?

Thank you!

What do vaccinations have to do with serving in the military.

Of course Catholics are allowed to serve in the military.

CCC 2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.

CCC 2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:

• the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
• all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
• there must be serious prospects of success;
• the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the “just war” doctrine.

The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.

CCC 2310 Public authorities, in this case, have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defense.
Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace.

 

[DavidFilmer]

FWIW, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA is the largest Diocese in the Catholic Church. It is led by an Archbishop and three Auxiliary Bishops.

 

[nitesnake]

Hello everybody,

I had a question. Is it immoral to serve in the military?

Thank you!

If it is, then the military chaplains (priests) who said mass for us when I was in Afghanistan and Iraq are in trouble.

 

[Iron_Donkey]

Hello everybody,

I had a question. Is it immoral to serve in the military?

Apparently some of the vaccinations contain aborted fetal cells and sterilization in them, so that’s what has been turning me, and my parents, away from the idea.

Also, the idea of serving for our current President is making me a little unsure…

My overall question, am I thinking correctly? Or is this all conspiracy/rumors…?

Thank you!

It is not inherently immoral (that is, circumstances that could make it worse aside) to serve in the military as has been pointed out. I do not think that either of the issues you raised would make it immoral to serve in the military in this instance.

It is immoral for the people who make the vaccines to make them. You could argue either way the morality of deciding to take such vaccines for health purposes knowing what they are while disapproving of the way they were made (I am conflicted on to whether seeking such things out would be moral, given the situation we are in as far as choice in medicines goes. Or rather, does not go.).

But you aren’t doing either of those in joining the military. You’re joining the military for the just purpose of defending the innocent, and having others inflict these vaccines on you as part of the process. I do not think that you could be held responsible for the contents of the vaccines that you don’t choose to take.

As for serving under our current president - I can see why that might not appeal, but I don’t see that likely to be a moral problem. Most of the military activities that our president orders that some find morally objectionable (I don’t want to start an argument over this) center on the use of drones, and depending on what job you do within the military you may be completely isolated from such things.

 

[George_Stegmeir]

Hello everybody,

I had a question. Is it immoral to serve in the military?

Apparently some of the vaccinations contain aborted fetal cells and sterilization in them, so that’s what has been turning me, and my parents, away from the idea.

Also, the idea of serving for our current President is making me a little unsure…

My overall question, am I thinking correctly? Or is this all conspiracy/rumors…?

Thank you!

I am a Navy veteran of both the Korean and Viet Nam Wars, having served both as an enlisted man and a Commissioned Officer. I can tell you from personal experience that there is nothing immoral or against the Catholic Faith in serving in the military of the U.S.
Others have spelled it out more thoroughly than I could possibly do.
I do believe that someone is filling your head with bovine excrement. The anti-war types and conspiracy theorists (complete with tinfoil hats) tend to do that. They really don’t know what they are talking about!
As for vaccinations, I can tell you that if you are in the military, they are for your benefit.
If you are sent overseas, especially to Asia, you are exposed to some pretty terrible lethal diseases that are all but unknown in the US. Things like Black Plague, Malaria, and Typhus are very commonplace in places like the Phillipines, Indo China, Taiwan and Malaysia to name a few! As for cells from aborted fetuses being used in vacines, pure propaganda. I defy you or anyone else to show me a creditable scientific source for that information.
Just bear in mind, that when you leave your family to enter the military, you are esentially still an adolescent. I guarentee you that after basic training you will be an adult!
In addition, I can’t think of a better way to finance a college education, other than having a sack of money dropping from heaven and hitting you in the head!

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

I am a Navy veteran of both the Korean and Viet Nam Wars, having served both as an enlisted man and a Commissioned Officer. I can tell you from personal experience that there is nothing immoral or against the Catholic Faith in serving in the military of the U.S.
Others have spelled it out more thoroughly than I could possibly do.
I do believe that someone is filling your head with bovine excrement. The anti-war types and conspiracy theorists (complete with tinfoil hats) tend to do that. They really don’t know what they are talking about!
As for vaccinations, I can tell you that if you are in the military, they are for your benefit.
If you are sent overseas, especially to Asia, you are exposed to some pretty terrible lethal diseases that are all but unknown in the US. Things like Black Plague, Malaria, and Typhus are very commonplace in places like the Phillipines, Indo China, Taiwan and Malaysia to name a few! As for cells from aborted fetuses being used in vacines, pure propaganda. I defy you or anyone else to show me a creditable scientific source for that information.
Just bear in mind, that when you leave your family to enter the military, you are esentially still an adolescent. I guarentee you that after basic training you will be an adult!
In addition, I can’t think of a better way to finance a college education, other than having a sack of money dropping from heaven and hitting you in the head!

You said it better than I ever could, George.

I am a military veteran and two of my three children are currently serving, one is a vet. If I had thought for even one minute that my service would be counter to the teachings of the Church, I would never have gone in, and I enlisted as a volunteer, as did my kids.

 

[JCP94]

Well see…its not what the vaccinations result in that I’m concerned about…its what’s actually in them…

I’m probably getting the wrong info, too, but…still I’m a bit concerned.

Also, I almost joined the National Guard through a program called Split Option Training, where I would start training with the local unit and go to Basic Training this summer, then my school for the job I would have in the military. I was very close, even getting to OK from my spiritual director (I’ve discerned the priesthood before, but decided, through much prayer, that its not for me just yet), but my parents did not let me enlist because of those vaccinations and Barack Obama.

I know I have the right to choose a career/way of life, but I just don’t want to hurt them…I will join if I feel its right…

If it helps, I would look into being an Officer in the Marine Corps in a Military Police unit.

Thanks again!
Semper Fi!

 

[gardenswithkids]

…As for cells from aborted fetuses being used in vacines, pure propaganda. I defy you or anyone else to show me a creditable scientific source for that information…

**Not **pure propaganda at all. However, discussions of vaccinations used to be a topic forbidden by the rules of this forum. (I can’t find that rule now, so I don’t know if it’s been changed or not.) The Vatican issued a statement on this several years ago, around 2005. I encourage you, the op and anyone else wanting information on that to do a search on your own.

 

[thistle]

Well see…its not what the vaccinations result in that I’m concerned about…its what’s actually in them…

I’m probably getting the wrong info, too, but…still I’m a bit concerned.

Also, I almost joined the National Guard through a program called Split Option Training, where I would start training with the local unit and go to Basic Training this summer, then my school for the job I would have in the military. I was very close, even getting to OK from my spiritual director (I’ve discerned the priesthood before, but decided, through much prayer, that its not for me just yet), but my parents did not let me enlist because of those vaccinations and Barack Obama.

I know I have the right to choose a career/way of life, but I just don’t want to hurt them…I will join if I feel its right…

If it helps, I would look into being an Officer in the Marine Corps in a Military Police unit.

Thanks again!
Semper Fi!

The Church position on vaccines derived from aborted human fetuses is that while the vaccines derived from aborted fetuses is condemned, Catholics may use fetal cell line vaccines when it is impossible to use vaccines derived from non-fetal cell lines.

cogforlife.org/vaticanresponse.pdf