Is self-preservation a sin?

[lubczyk]

I have this deep burning question that I need answered.

You see me and my family are Catholic.

I know that killing is a sin but is self-preservation a sin?

You see my grandfather was a Polish Army Officer in Poland during World War II. He had been active as a lieutenant in the Warsaw Uprising and had survived the bombings. When the Capitol city of Warsaw had been liberated by the Russian army he was soon detained afterwards. Him and about 100 other people were held prisoner in a makeshift prison outside the city in a warehouse with a garrison of about 12 Russian soldiers including at least 1 officer. My grandfather says that him and the other prisoners had heard stories of the Russians executing members of the Polish resistence in newly liberated Polish towns and cities and were fearful for their lives. They were afraid that they were going to be next. Somehow they forcefully overpowered the guards took their weapons and fought it out with the remaining garrison. Scores of them died but some of them, including my grandfather, managed to run away to the neighboring towns and villages. My grandfather personally can recall personally choking and beating to death one of the garrison and shooting at least 6 others with one of the confiscated Russian rifles. 2 of the Russians he had shot from afar in the back while they ran away and shouted for help and reinforcements.

To this day he prays daily for the souls of those he had killed. He also says that he had been falsely accused and had done nothing wrong. He says he doesn’t regret what he did for he fought to save himself and the others from death.

He says that he didn’t want to die so he fought to save himself.

Is what he had done considered a mortal sin?

Was there something else he could have done except wait to be executed or imprisoned?

 

[briang72]

Here is a post in Ask An Apologist regarding military service and killing:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=161963

Seems to me that your grandfather would be “protecting the innocent” by protecting himself and his fellow officers.

If I were your grandfather, I would certainly take the time to go to confession and mention the situation. I usually mention things that I am certain are sins first, then I will ask the priest about things that I am unsure of.

 

[otjm]

I have this deep burning question that I need answered.

You see me and my family are Catholic.

I know that killing is a sin but is self-preservation a sin?

To begin with, saying that killing is a sin is too simplistic. The commandment is actually that one shall not kill an innocent person.

Starting with that, it is somewhat easier to get a perspective on the issue. During war, combatants on the other side are not per se innocent. This is a short post, and not intended to go into every permutation on just war theory and the determination of who is right and who is wrong; but starting with the general principle that the Germans had wrongfully started the war, the Russians were at it with the Germans, and neither side had any love for the Poles caught in between the two countries, what your grandfather did was moral and justified.

It does little or no good to anyone to second guess in the future what else could have taken place. Given the German Army’s record for treatment of prisoners, the Russian Army’s treatment of prisoners, and the very real fact that both sides often executed people simply because it was easier than dealing with prisoners, had your grandfather not done what he did, he and the others who escaped would, odds on, have not made it to the end of the war. He was completely justified.

The war between the two former allies was extremely brutal. It bogged down during the winter, which worked to the advantage of the Russians, but thousands on both sides died due not to combat but to exposure and starvation. Prisoners were simply mouths to feed and people to keep warm, and that didn’t fit either side’s necessities for winning the battle between them. Had the Russians not prevailed, it is extremely doubtful, given the history of the Germans in Poland, that they would have not executed him themselves had they come across the prison. Neither side had any use for a strong Pole.

I seriously doubt your grandfather would have made it had he not done what he did.

I am curious as to who it is or was who accused him of doing wrong.

It is excellent that he prays for them; and I hope he is not second guessing himself for his actions; they were extremely courageous in a time of almost sure death. Poland got whacked by the Germans and then whacked again by the Russians. That in itself should explain the morality of what he did. In short, he is a hero.

 

[AndyF]

lubczyk:

All this was done in a time of war and your grandfather did his duty. Anyway it turns out that he was right after all, so one could say he acted on inspiration from God.

Every person has his own level of self preservation and it isn’t a sin. It also depends on strength that God imparts in graces. Not all people possess the iron will to offer their lives at the drop of a hat. Why even Peter feared for his. At the other end of the scale there are those who care little for themselves. What comes to mind is a case in the same war where in a concentration camp there was one priest that offered his life in exchange for a family man’s. The gestapo obliged.

One must also offer some degree of consideration that in these cases of high anxiety and extreme terror, it is not the ideal situation for collected discernment, where one must act immediately in split second timing. One tragedy of war.

Your grandfather was right, he did what he could in the situation that faced him, that is all anyone can ask.

The world cannot thank him enough for his fight for peace and liberty.

AndyF

 

[lubczyk]

@AndyF

He doesn’t talk publicly about it, so I don’t know whether he’s told a priest about it, that’s none of my business. I was asking this out of my own curiosity.

@otjm

“I am curious as to who it is or was who accused him of doing wrong.”

He was accused after identifying himself to a Russian Officer of being apart of the Polish Underground which was an “illegal revolutionary force considered to be Nazi sympathizers and enemy to the legitimate government of Poland”. You know complete bunk used to eliminate opponents to the Soviet
Regime.

Thank you all for your help.

I feel more at peace now.

 

[Icarus210]

I was under the impression that the catholic viewpoint was in war, a soldier kills in self defence. It is never murder or killing of an innocent, as if he didnt kill the enemy, they would kill him. And from the story you have given, he was a hero, as well as just a soldier…