Just War Theory

• In 13th century, St Thomas Aquinas developed conditions or rules for a war to be considered just or fair to fight:
• 1. Must be a just cause - those attacked must have committed some fault - self defenc, not to acquire wealth or power.
• 2. War must be declared and controlled by a competent and legal authority.
• 3. War must be last resort, and only used when all other options have been exhausted.
• 4. War must e right intentions - to promote cause of good and avoid evil, aiming to restore peace and justice.
• 5. Must be a reasonable chance of success - good achieved from war, outweighing evil that lead to war.
• 6. Proportionality only use enough force to achieve your aim and if possible, civilians shouldn’t.t be involved.
• Just War = war declared for right and noble reasons and fought in a certain way.
• Isn’t war that is good, but war Catholics feel to be necessary or just in circumstances when all other solutions have been tried and failed.
• Most Catholics support war if justified by Just War standards.
• Many Bible references oppose violent conflict - Jesus urges his followers to avoid and actively try to stop conflict - Jesus says that even anger and hatred are destructive.
• Christianity teaches that people should live alongside each other in mutual tolerance (however most accept that war is sometimes inevitable).