By Joseph R. Wood
As an intellectual Pharisee, I recognize that I am smarter than everyone else (after all, I am a philosopher!). As the eternal and immutable Unmoved Mover of Aristotle, the only appropriate activity for me is to contemplate my own excellence in my intellect.
But the world needs to hear my self-expressed opinions, so sometimes I descend from the heights to correct the errors of others (that is, opinions different from mine). When priests dress in purple, as now, I often regret that the world does not more often receive the gift of my instruction (not in vain did one of my Air Force Academy professors, decades ago, give me the nickname “Arrogance”).
With the strict word limit of TCT (which should apply to others, not to me), I will only attempt to address two problems I encountered this week.
On December 3, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, pastor of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, issued a “Statement on Caribbean Interceptions.” The statement responded both to the broad Trump Administration policy of using the military to interdict drug trafficking outside our territory and to the specific act of Secretary of Defense (rather, of War) Hegseth or his commanders, when they ordered an attack against a presumed drug trafficking vessel, followed by a second attack that killed the survivors of the first.
Both the policy and the act raise difficult moral questions. In recent decades, the United States has faced grave threats from “non-state actors,” such as terrorist organizations. Such organizations operate without regard for international or national law. As such, they present complex challenges for nations seeking to codify the reason of natural law in international agreements and domestic laws that regulate how we conduct war.
In past cases, such as the brutal U.S. counterinsurgency campaign in the Philippines, the counterinsurgency against the Viet Cong, or the detention of terrorists outside the United States at Guantánamo, America has struggled to respect moral principles while doing what was considered necessary to protect Americans and their allies.
Even the question of which organizations should be designated as “terrorists” (subject to U.S. economic and military actions) is fraught with difficulties. Should drug lords be considered terrorists, like those who attacked on September 11?
Archbishop Broglio’s statement mentions neither Christ nor Scripture nor Catholic sources. It seems to apply secular criteria to a secular problem, although the secular criteria it analyzes—the “theory” of just war and due process—find their foundations in Western Catholic thought.
The principles of just war originated with St. Augustine and were developed by St. Thomas Aquinas and later thinkers (the principles only became a “theory” when intellectual Pharisees like me started working on them). Their aim is to guide both the resort to war and conduct within it according to moral principles, such as war being the last resort to achieve the justice of peace and the principle of proportionality.
The principles of just war govern war between what are today called nation-states. “Due process,” on the other hand, is required by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution with respect to guaranteeing the legal rights of citizens and non-citizens accused of crimes within the United States. It can also apply to U.S. courts or occupation authorities established outside this country.
Archbishop Broglio is listening to both members of the Armed Forces and their chaplains, who are concerned about the current policy, just as previous generations of American Catholics faced moral concerns in the murky moral waters stirred up by combat.
Therefore, there is a need for the clearest possible guidance to help make difficult life-and-death decisions in very unclear circumstances.
Unfortunately, Archbishop Broglio’s statement deepens the confusion. It recognizes the magnitude of the drug catastrophe in our country, but then writes:
In the fight against drugs, the end never justifies the means, which must be moral, in accordance with the principles of just war theory, and always respectful of the dignity of every human person. No one can ever be compelled to commit an immoral act, and even those suspected of committing a crime have a right to due process according to the law. … We do not know if every sailor on a vessel presumably dedicated to the transport of illegal drugs is aware of the nature of the cargo.
The archbishop thus confuses the principles of just war, which seek to minimize the barbarity of an anarchic international world, with due process, which relies on legitimate domestic authority and courts to guarantee rights, and which in turn must be controlled by those same rights.
If we seek broader principles behind the words of the statement, the only possible inference is that the U.S. military must somehow ensure not only adherence to the principles of just war as codified in the U.S. Law of War, but also guarantee due process rights, and even discern the state of conscience in the mind of each enemy combatant before acting.
I cannot believe that Archbishop Broglio intended to insist that U.S. soldiers, sailors, and aviators read Miranda rights to those they fight against. But his statement conveys that message.
This will not help Catholics fulfill their military responsibilities in a moral and faithful manner. I hope the archbishop clarifies his guidance.
Closer to our sphere here at TCT, David Bonagura reminded us that Christ’s Incarnation was and is the turning point of history, a welcome message.
He places the Incarnation at Christmas.
We might think of Christ’s Incarnation as the totality of his time dwelling among us. But if there is a specific moment of the Incarnation, it has to be the Annunciation.
Christ was fully human. That full human nature required that, bodily, he be conceived in a woman and grow in her womb for nine months. Perhaps that is why Cardinal Ratzinger writes that in the Annunciation, with Mary’s yes, “Logos and flesh truly become one.”
Then, at Christmas, we celebrate his manifestation to the world, represented by the shepherds, his humblest citizens.
And, in more worldly concerns, defenders of abortion should not be given reason to claim that even we Catholics think that our strange God-man became human only at birth.
With thanks and apologies to Archbishop Broglio and David Bonagura—and back to Advent—.
About the author
Joseph Wood is an endowed assistant professor in the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He is a pilgrim philosopher and an easily accessible hermit.