Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 7646 Plough Quarterly • Summer 2015 In his 1991 encyclical, Centesimus Annus, John Paul II again pleaded, “No, never again war, which destroys the lives of innocent people, teaches how to kill, throws into upheaval even the lives of those who do the killing and leaves behind a trail of resentment and hatred, thus making it all the more difficult to find a just solution of the very problems that provoked the war.” And Pope Benedict XVI has said: “I would like to call out to the consciences of those who form part of armed groups of any kind. To each and every one, I say: Stop, reflect, and abandon the path of violence!”(Angelus message, Jan. 1, 2010). And more: “It is impossible to interpret Jesus as a violent person. Violence is contrary to the kingdom of God; it is a tool of the Antichrist. Violence never serves humanity, but dehuman- izes” (Angelus message, Mar. 11, 2012). Let us hear no more, “Yes, but . . .” When war is outlawed, as it must be if humanity is to survive its penchant for self-destruction, our progeny will look back on justifications for war with the shame we do today on justifications for slavery by Christian theologians a mere one hundred and fifty years ago. If Christians are not in the vanguard of the war against war, if that is left to nonbelievers, then we will have deserted the field, cowards indeed, and other generations, if there be any, will have to restore the credibility of the gospel of the Prince of Peace and the integrity of his church. Disarmament must be a top priority. Most people would agree in principle – popes and presidents included – but there is no will to do it. It’s been over fifty years since we had a broad- based disarmament movement in the United States or the world. Meanwhile the nuclear threat has only become more severe as nuclear- weapons capability proliferates. In their 1983 letter, The Challenge of Peace, the US Catholic bishops challenged the nuclear deterrent, calling it morally acceptable only temporarily and conditionally, to buy time for multilateral nuclear disarmament. But that time has already run out, according to the Vatican, which already called for the universal abolition of nuclear weapons in 1997. More recently, Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the ­ Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has gone even further: “Individuals and com- munities have the duty to express clearly their complete and radical rejection of all forms of violence, especially that fueled in God’s holy name” (Zenit, Feb. 19, 2007). So we have calls for disarmament from the Vatican itself! In the Catholic Church, a grassroots peace movement among the laity has been growing – and not just among the usual suspects in the Catholic Worker, Pax Christi, and Plowshares movements. Academic groups such as the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame are contributing too. Even more Christians must rise to meet the challenge. As Thomas Merton wrote: “The duty of the Christian in this [present] crisis is to strive with all his power and intelligence, with his faith, his hope in Christ and love for God and man, to do the one task which God has imposed upon us in the world today. That task is to work for the total abolition of war” (The Catholic Worker, Oct. 1961). So let us get to work. The first words I ever heard from Dorothy Day, sixty-one years ago, were, “There are great things that have to be done, and who will do them but the young?” No cause is more noble or more necessary. Pray and study first, then get out there and start moving.  Christians must be at the vanguard of the war against war.