What is the official Church position regarding the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

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mythbuster1 said:
. 60 million people died in WWII, and 99.7% of them were killed by things other than nuclear weapons. That is the scale of destruction that the decision makers sought to end using something they didn’t understand.
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This is fuzzy math. Germany had surrendered already. You might as well roll in WWI and make even a more shocking statistic. I get your point, but there was no need to exaggerate for it. Still, utilitarianism can lead to immoral decisions.
 
GKMotley said:
And I think you are right. But that judgement would be there same even if the cities were conventionally targeted, i.e. the mixed population and the military value were the targets
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It is often pointed out (rightly) that there were a lot more morally dicey decisions made during the war than just the deployment of these two bombs. BTW, on a side note, my son just completed a book report on Bill O’Reilly’s book, The Day the World Went Nuclear, as the first part to a report on the Catholic teaching on the use of nuclear weapons
 
I didn’t finish it. My recollection of the perfunctory look I gave it is that it was inadequate and wrong in parts I can’t recall. But it’s in there on the bomb bookcase with all the rest, if I need to refresh my memory.
 
GKMotley said:
I didn’t finish it. My recollection of the perfunctory look I gave it is that it was inadequate and wrong in parts I can’t recall. But it’s in there on the bomb bookcase with all the rest, if I need to refresh my memory.
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What I saw of it was that it was an easy read, like pop history, so it would probably be too simple for you. But for a kid of 13, it was pretty good.
 
That was my reaction, plus I spotted some stuff I didn’t agree with (another way of saying “it’s wrong”).

But guess what? I went over to the bookcase and got it.

It’s about more than the bombs, of course, and my WWII library on the Pacific Theater is larger than that on the bombs. But I’m gonna read it. On page 10 now. Onward!!
 
That website and the one linked does not actually list one single war the United States has started. I am calling it garbage from dubious website.
 
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TheOldColonel said:
In my mind, the change in trajectory on the morality of war robs the Vatican of any further moral authority on the subject.
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Odd for a Catholic to pick and choose areas of which they accept the Catholic Church’s moral authority, but that is the way things are now for liberals and a few conservatives.

FYI - The Catholic Church has not abandoned Just War Doctrine.
 
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TheOldColonel said:
Surely you’re not such a globalist…
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I have to shake my head at use of such terms, as if they have some meaning. You are aware that the meaning of “catholic” is “universal,” are you not? Every Catholic, is by definition part of something that extends all over the globe.

I think what was meant, because I thought the same thing, is that the reporting by the media, after it is translated, is often inaccurate and selective about what they report from the Church. I just pulled up an article on Pope Francis with a headline from the Telegraph, Pope Denounces Gulf War. I remember this on. Yet when the article is read, the Gulf War is not mentioned. However several regional civil conflicts are. So a homily about a call for peace in the world was applied to a specific situation by a media outlet. That is the type of thing we do not need to swallow.

I note you begin your post with, “After World War II.” It may not be so much that the Church has changed as the United States has changed. That war was truly in defense of human life. It was the last time an aggressor nation attacked the United States.
 
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TheOldColonel said:
What is usually the case is that those claiming perfect acceptance of ALL teachings fall into two camps:
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I guess I am in neither camp. There are all so those that are rational, yet acknowledge they do no know everything. Those areas in which there is some disagreement with either the moral teaching, or the moral guidance, are met as a student, or sheep, not as an equal in a debate. The only two issues I have struggled with are the death penalty and remarriage. I have a good grasp on the former, and still learning about the latter. Yet about neither would I deny the Church’s moral authority on the issue.
 
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On September 11, 2001 an aggressor “non-nation” attacked the United States and killed 3,000 people. Wiped out 16 square blocks of downtown Manhattan and the Pentagon.
 
And Area51 is just on the east side of the fence line.

[Google Earth]
 
I think we all know that. Just like I would hope we all know the definition of “nation.” Neither fact has any relevance on the Just War Doctrine, nor do they get any moral reason for suspending it.
 
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Deliberately inviting others to attack yourself and believing in unicorns and rainbows is not a defense.
 
Those who want unilateral disarmament. Disarmament must be mutual, else it means placing yourself at the mercy of others. Furthermore, unilateral disarmament could actually encourage proliferation among our allies, who would no longer trust us to meet our mutual defense obligations. Why would Poland not fear Russian aggression if the United States removed the nuclear umbrella? What would prevent them from establishing a nuclear deterrent of their own?
 
MonteRCMS said:
On September 11, 2001 an aggressor “non-nation” attacked the United States and killed 3,000 people. Wiped out 16 square blocks of downtown Manhattan and the Pentagon.
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You say a “non-nation” was responsible for 9/11, but the nation of Afghanistan was held responsible. How many of the tens of thousands of Afghans who died; were directly responsible for 9/11?

How many thousands of innocent Iraqi died; as a result of invisible WMDs in the second Gulf War?

If we want to talk Catholic morality, then we have to look at the human rights of all people. We are all created by the same God; and the same God hears all our prayers; despite our differences.
 
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