Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As a follow-up or continuation from earlier articles about the conditions for a Just War, I was planning on addressing some of the other factors that must be considered, such as there must be a possibility of winning the war and the corollary to that being that there is to be a clear goal or objective for the conflict. However, with the recent news that occurred in regards to our country’s conflict with Iran over Easter, it is probably good to address another aspect of a just war that is rather pertinent – that of proportionality. A simple way of looking at the principle of proportionality in war would be to say that the harm that would be caused by going to war must outweigh the harm that would be caused by not going to war. This applies then to other aspects of how a war is to be fought as well. It recognizes the likelihood that when operating against military targets that civilians and civilian infrastructure may be hit, but if the civilian damage would outweigh the military benefit then it would be an unjust action. Like many of the other things we examined for this series, that can be a very difficult analysis to make – especially since we are most likely not going to have all of the details beforehand, nor a guarantee on exactly where things like missiles and bullets will land. It is not permissible to intentionally target civilians and to plan for the systematic annihilation of a people. And it is possible that a war that is entered into justly can become unjust at some point after it has begun. For example, because there must be some prospect of success, if after many battles it becomes clear that a war is unwinnable, it would be unjust to continue the war and waste lives if there is a prospect of reasonable surrender. In the same way, if the Commander in Chief wants to escalate the war beyond proportionality and cause far more harm that would be prevented by the war, or directly target civilian infrastructure without a direct military benefit, that would move a conflict into unjust territory.

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Again, we must always be cautious because we are not likely to know the exact capabilities of the enemy, or how much harm they could cause if they do not surrender, but the statements made by the President taken at face value certainly seem to go far beyond the just war doctrine. We are to clearly make known our opposition by faith to anything that is unjust. You cannot commit evil to attain something good; no good result excuses an evil action. We should also join with our Pope in praying for an end to violence and all forms of war.

Peace in Christ,

Father Timothy