Ashley Pierson’s April 11 column, “Justness of war a very gray area,” demands a response. This semester I am teaching a class on Catholic social thought in which we have spent several classes examining just war theory.

The just war theory has an ancient history, with roots in Cicero. It was first developed in the Western Christian context by Augustine. In the 20th century a large number of Christian and secular theorists developed the theory, and Catholic and Protestant religious leaders have applied it to a large number of cases.

More recently the U.S. Catholic bishops and many other religious leaders in the United States and throughout the world, including the Pope, used the theory as a framework to question the justness of a war against Iraq. The prudential judgment of these religious leaders was almost unanimously against a war.

Unfortunately, Ms. Pierson’s column relies on a 1908 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia, which is available online. This source presents a very out-of date and truncated analysis of just war theory. The 1983 U.S. Bishops’ pastoral, The Challenge of Peace, listed these conditions that all need to be met for a war to be justified: just cause, competent authority, comparative justice, right intention, last resort, probability of success and proportionality. There are also conditions that must guide the way a war is fought, which include proportionality in the use of violence and discrimination of targets (i.e., civilian immunity).

It is not my intention at this time to debate the justice or injustice of the current war.

But if we are to use a theory as a framework for discussion, I would ask that the ethical theory be presented accurately.

John Donaghy

Lecturer

Department of Philosophy

Religious studies