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Dear Mark Shea,
In reading your CE artcle “Toying With Evil…” it makes me wonder what you thought of Dietrich Bonnhoffer and his plans to assasinate Hitler, or even where you would draw the line in killing in war, when the ememy blatanyly goes against all “rules of war” (if there can really be such a thing). Just today I heard of another case of US troops being killed by a “dummy” disabled truck and a “hidden secondary bomb.” A decision often has to be made in a split second by a soldier in war, so can anyone really say if what the soldier did in your example was right or wrong? Can we, for that matter, or anyone (like perhaps the military court), really know his heart, his intentions and his motives, and judge his actions as morally right or wrong, as you seem to imply? Or maybe he never even stopped to contemplate his upcoming action, but having been trained to be “less than human” and respond by killing many if necessary, simply reacted like, say Pavlov's dogs? So isn't the premise of “wait until the investigation is over” a bit of a simplistic answer to a question that really can't be truthfully answered by anyone but the soldier himself? And then, was this soldier truly in a state of mind where he could make a real choice to fufill the three perimeters of sin…”know it is a sin, want to sin, and choose to do it anyway”…(from the ol' Baltimore Catechism).
I certainly don't have the answers, and I personally think, as JPII says, that all torture violates human dignity. But that said, I still have not personally taken a clear cut “right” or “wrong” stance on this whole war, feeling rather that, once again, I am not in the position to make this decision, so I do what I think is right, and that is trust JPII and his stance on the war. I, myself, am for the most part a pacifist, knowing full well that I could never kill another in any situation…That said, I have never been in a situation of rape, or where the life of one of my children is threatened.
Having said all of this, and understanding your argument for the error in justifying “wrong” means to a “right” end, I admit that there have been times when I have lied when it seemed the better thing for the better reason. It seems to me to be justified in cases that I am sure you would agree with, i.e. “No, I have no Jews hiding in my attic.” Would you put lying into a lesser category that the debate of torture and murder? And where did you come down on “A Real Conundrum: One Film, Three Catholic Opinions”? This CE article presents three points of view, all seemingly within the realm of “pluriformity.” Again, it deals with these “we wish it were nice and black and white, clear cut and there is only one right way to go” type of situations. I truly believe mercy killing is always wrong. Yet, I am also grateful to God that I have not been put in the situation where I have to wrestle with these issues (and I did not see the movie, only read all the hype).
One last item. Rather than always labeling ourselves and our fellow Catholics as Conservative or Liberal, wouldn't it be better, as Cardinal Ratzinger says to say we are neither “but rather we are “Missionary”, if we must use a label at all?
Jan F.
Jan:
I understand that split second decisions must be made in war. But that does not mean that a soldier therefore is not obliged to try to do the right thing as best he can. And it particularly does not mean that a soldier is justified in committing what he himself knows to be cold-blooded murder. An enemy soldier who does not “fight fair” may be killed in battle. He may not be murdered.
A soldier is not obliged to judge the state of the enemy's soul. He is obliged to judge the likelihood that the enemy has the means to kill him. If he knows the enemy does not have those means and kills the enemy anyway, he is committing murder.
With respect to your other questions: It's not my business to judge Herr Bonhoeffer. Nor is it my business to judge you. The Church teaches that we do not owe information to those who have no right to it (such as the hypothetical Gestapo). I thought Million Dollar Baby was a piece of agitprop for mercy killing and a direct assault on human life and the Catholic defense of it. Finally, I used the labels because they helped me get my main point across.
Thanks for writing!
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
