Bringing you the "Good News" of Jesus Christ and His Church While PROMOTING CATHOLIC Apologetic Support groups loyal to the Holy Father and Church's magisterium
Home About
AskACatholic.com
What's New? Resources The Church Family Life Mass and
Adoration
Ask A Catholic
Knowledge base
AskACatholic Disclaimer
Search the
AskACatholic Database
Donate and
Support our work
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
New Questions
Cool Catholic Videos
About Saints
Disciplines and Practices for distinct Church seasons
Purgatory and Indulgences
About the Holy Mass
About Mary
Searching and Confused
Contemplating becoming a Catholic or Coming home
Homosexual and Gender Issues
Life, Dating, and Family
back
No Salvation Outside the Church
Sacred Scripture
non-Catholic Cults
Justification and Salvation
The Pope and Papacy
The Sacraments
Relationships and Marriage situations
Specific people, organizations and events
Doctrine and Teachings
Specific Practices
Church Internals
Church History

Steven Tucci wrote:

Hi, guys —

  • Why are members of the Catholic community so strongly against abortion, yet boast and brag about either being a current member of the military or veterans of the Armed Forces where the decision to join such a brutal outfit are made voluntarily by sound-minded adults who are aware that they will most likely have to:

    • kill
    • be an accomplice to a killing, or
    • create a situation where others will come in and be kill?

  • Isn't preventing Catholics from joining an organization that openly kills millions of people a much more urgent matter than a woman having an abortion, where they can have no more than four children?

Steven Tucci

  { Why are some Catholics against abortion while serving in brutal killing outfits like the military? }

Paul replied:

Hello Steven,

A couple of comments.

First, some of the fathers of the Church, including Augustine, had your same concern. Out of this legitimate concern came what is called the Just War Doctrine. The bottom line is that killing in a war [if and when] that war is strictly for defensive purposes — after all other means of stopping an aggressor nation have been exhausted, there are reasonable prospects of success, and the unjust aggressor is causing grave and lasting damage — can in theory be justified.

In such a case, your primary intent is to save or preserve innocent human beings from an unjust aggressor. Whether or not any wars of the past have been truly just is another question. Before getting involved in armed conflict it is up to legitimate authority to calculate whether or not it is justified.

Secondly, you mentioned:

  • Isn't preventing Catholics from joining an organization that openly kills millions of people a much more urgent matter than a woman having an abortion, where they can have no more than four children?

We have killed more human beings through abortion in this country then in all of our wars put together, times 100. The war on the unborn, unlike other wars, is very clearly unjust.

Peace,

Paul

Mike replied:

Hi Steven,

I just wanted to add a bit to what Paul has said.

Soldiers fighting in a just war are fighting an aggressor who the defending country believes is guilt of infringing on the freedoms of the defending country.

Male and female fetuses in a mother's womb, are not guilt of anything . . . they are innocent and just want their freedoms.

You see militant feminists are not pro-choice. The pro-life people are really pro-choice — we want the male and female fetus in a mother's womb to make choices for a lifetime.

You may find this answer helpful as well. Someone earlier asked a similar question about the difference between being pro-life and pro-death penalty:

You also said:

  • . . . . , in which I think they can have no more than four?

Excuse me? I know Catholic families with eleven children! Big families, if physically possible and within financial means, is part of being Catholic. The only reason the younger generation hasn't received this message is due to:

  • poor Catholic catechesis
  • a culture that frowns on big families due to corporate career inconvenience, and
  • a culture persuaded by that bastard the devil who hates new human life.

Our medical training institutions don't help when doctors are always asking parents if they wish to terminate pregnancies for some reason.

I hope this clears up the issue.

Mike

Similar issues . . .

[Related posting]|[Related posting]|[Related posting]|[Related posting]|[Related posting]
[Related posting]


Please report any and all typos or grammatical errors.
Suggestions for this web page and the web site can be sent to Mike Humphrey
© 2012 Panoramic Sites
The Early Church Fathers Church Fathers on the Primacy of Peter. The Early Church Fathers on the Catholic Church and the term Catholic. The Early Church Fathers on the importance of the Roman Catholic Church centered in Rome.