Military Orders

[Anian]

The military orders known as the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Knights where founded nearly a thousand years ago to help fight on behalf of and propagate the faith. Dozens existed (see a complete list on the Wikipedia page on Military Orders) with some not giving up the sword until just 100 years ago. For a better idea of what im talking about click here for the catholic encyclopedia.

So my question is, how can we as a church allow our holy and secular men alike to join religious and secular orders bent on killing non Catholics, aren’t we supposed to be peaceful and turn the other cheek?

 

[Spirithound]

My understanding is that the Knights Templar existed to escort pilgrims to the Holy Land. Their existence was not geared towards fighting, but to protecting.

 

[1ke]

See the Catechism section on just war.

 

[Big_Ro]

I don’t know. What little I know about the Knights Templar, they were pretty violent and attacked Muslims with impunity. They may have started out as a protection force, but it seems they evolved into a military force. Their main power, however, came from the international banking system they established. It was the first ever.

 

[climbjumprun]

I’d encourage you to read a little more about the reasons for the founding of the military orders you referenced and their histories.

As the other commenter suggested, read up on the just war doctrine. Just War Doctrine

As a Catholic, I am committed to fighting evil not just spiritually, but physically if and when necessary. I believe - as I understand the Church teaches - that Catholics must be willing to wage war when the cause is just. And they must wage it in a just manner.

By my reading, the military orders were founded for the just cause of defending the faithful against attack by expansionist totalitarian Islam. By the time these military orders were founded, Islam had managed to forcefully displace Christians from most of the Middle East, all of North Africa, Cyprus, most of Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, and southern Italy. This was accomplished through brutally effective military expansion, a social system of dhimmitude in captured provinces, and mass “conversions”. The popes believed war against Muslims was justified partly because Muslims had usurped by force land that had once belonged to Christians and partly because Muslims abused the Christians over whom they ruled and raided neighboring Christian lands for slaves and plunder. Pope Urban II, successive popes, and the military orders’ founders believed it was time to strike back. Check out Rodney Stark’s new book God’s Battalions.