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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in God’s work to save the world.

Catholics and Conscientious Objection

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On John Carmody's website, introduced yesterday, you can find many excellent articles on the nonviolent teaching of Jesus and the implications of that. Here is a brief excerpt from a longer page on conscientious objection to military involvement by individuals in any walk of life. See full page: http://centerforchristiannonviolence.org/resources/conscientious_objection.php

Chaplain

To priests and ministers considering refusal on the basis of conscience to become military chaplains, we offer the example of Fr. George Zabelka, a Catholic chaplain with the U.S. Army Air Force, 509th Composite Group, who served as a priest for those who dropped the atomic bombs which destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. After his military chaplaincy, Fr. Zabelka was granted the grace of deep conversion to repent of his complicity in those war crimes. He became a witness to peace and nonviolence and an anti-nuclear weapons advocate the rest of his life.

Fr. Zabelka clearly, and rightly, felt that the U.S. military made use of his ministry to support combat. The April 21, 1941 Technical Manual given Fr. Zabelka by the War Department entitled The Chaplain explicitly declared four purposes for the office of chaplain (pp. 6-7):

The first two declared purposes are ministerial:

To provide the facilities for public religious worship to the military personnel.
To give spiritual ministration, moral counsel, and religious guidance to those under military jurisdiction.

However, the last two declared purposes clearly lend combat support:

To be the exponent in the Military Establishment of the religious motive as an incentive to right thinking and right acting.
To promote character building in the United States Army by precept and example and thus add greater efficiency to those engaged in the military defense of the country.

While there is hardly any open debate in the church about the combat support consequences of the role of military chaplain, some priests conscientiously object to taking on that role, silently expressing their objection simply by not volunteering for it. But their witness is invisible. And their witness may be lonely because they do not know who else objects to military chaplaincy in conscience. Public proclamation—such as on a website—can make this witness visible and inspiring.

You may also consider the statement of Bishop John Botean:

“All people enjoy the human right to refuse to kill or to cooperate in killing another human being. This means they have a right to claim themselves as conscientious objectors not only against participation in war as a combatant. They have a right also to proclaim themselves as conscientious objectors to non-combatant roles that support combat—such as logistical, medical and psychological roles. This right extends to priests and other ministers who see military chaplaincy in its current form as having the unintended consequence of combat support for unjust killing.”

Thus we urge national and regional bishops conferences, such as the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), to receive testimony from psychologists and other expert witnesses on how the present form of military chaplaincy desensitizes to killing.

We also urge bishops and other religious leaders to design ways to minister to military personnel that do not even unintentionally support combat.

We finally urge Catholic bishops and t

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