Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and head of the Doctrine of Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers readers of Exaudi his weekly article entitled “Wars Are a Defeat.”
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LOOK
The current wars best known in the media are those of Russia against Ukraine and Israel against the Palestinian group Hamas. There are many other wars in various parts of the world, that are not as well known, but which cause enormous suffering, especially among civilians, children, and many innocent victims. Even if it is claimed that they are fighting to defend their rights violated by the other party, it is always a defeat for fraternity and dialogue, a defeat for peace and justice. There are also wars in families, in partisan politics, and in other instances, sometimes with weapons that are very destructive of peaceful coexistence.
On January 1, 1994, in Chiapas, thousands of indigenous people took up arms to demand a change in the economic and social policies of the system prevailing in the country. The bishops at that time in that region, Samuel Ruiz, Felipe Aguirre, and me, stated on the third day of the uprising in which we denounced the structural causes of indigenous marginalization and demanded justice for them, but we rejected the use of arms as a method of change. Bishop Samuel always fought for indigenous rights, but he never agreed with the use of arms, because he knew that many indigenous people would be massacred by the national army. Fortunately, the country’s civil society mobilized to demand justice for the oppressed, but also an end to the war. This lasted only ten days, but left many wounded and dead, as well as internal divisions in Chiapas society, even among the indigenous people themselves.
The policy followed in the current six-year term of government, which is about to end, was hugs and not bullets, in order not to continue the so-called war against drug trafficking of the previous government, with the argument of avoiding more bloodshed in the country. However, this strategy has resulted in the free action of criminal groups dedicated not so much to drug trafficking, but to extortion. They, with heavy and sophisticated weapons, have gained power and dominate large regions of the country, including my little town; they kidnap, abduct and kill those who do not submit to their arbitrary actions. We feel unprotected by the government and defenseless to defend the honest work of so many people from whom they demand large amounts of money to let them live and work. We do not advocate bloody wars, but rather new intelligence that disarms these people and prevents the injustice suffered by the poor. And that does not presume in final reports that everything is fine and that we have made great progress. With what eyes do you see reality?
DISCERN
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in its Declaration Dignitas Infinita, considers wars as something contrary to human dignity:
“Another tragedy that denies human dignity is that caused by war, today as in all times: wars, attacks, persecutions for racial or religious reasons, and so many affronts to human dignity are painfully multiplying in many regions of the world, to the point of assuming the form of what could be called a ‘third world war in stages. ’ With its wake of destruction and pain, war is an affront to human dignity in the short and long term: even if we reaffirm the inalienable right to legitimate defence, as well as the responsibility to protect those whose existence is threatened, we must admit that war is always a ‘defeat for humanity’. No war is worth the tears of a mother who has seen her child mutilated or killed; no war is worth the loss of life, even of one human person, a sacred being, created in the image and likeness of the Creator; no war is worth the poisoning of our Common Home; and no war is worth the despair of those who are forced to leave their homeland and are deprived, from one moment to the next, of their home and of all the family, friendship, social and cultural ties that have been built up, sometimes over generations. All wars, by the mere fact that they contradict human dignity, are conflicts that will not solve problems, but will only increase them. This is even more serious in our times, when it has become normal for so many innocent civilians to die outside the battlefield” (38).
“Consequently, even today the Church cannot fail to make her own the words of the Popes, repeating with Saint Paul VI: «Never again war! Never again war!» and asking, with Saint John Paul II, «everyone in the name of God and in the name of man: do not kill! Do not prepare destruction and extermination for men! Think of your brothers who suffer hunger and misery! Respect the dignity and freedom of each person!» Precisely in our time, this is the cry of the Church and of all humanity. Finally, Pope Francis stresses that «we cannot think of war as a solution, because the risks will probably always be greater than the hypothetical utility attributed to it. Faced with this reality, it is very difficult today to uphold the rational criteria developed in other centuries to speak of a possible ‘just war’. Never again war!» Since humanity often falls back into the same errors of the past, in order to build peace, it is necessary to leave behind the logic of the legitimacy of war. The intimate relationship between faith and human dignity makes it contradictory to base war on religious convictions: whoever invokes the name of God to justify terrorism, violence and war, does not follow the path of God: war in the name of religion is a war against religion itself” (39).
ACT
Let us pray for peace in the world and for the well-being of our country: that there may be no more wars in families, in communities, in partisan politics, and that criminal groups may be converted to respect for the rights of others, so that we may enjoy peace and tranquility. Let us begin with our family.
