Word: documentation
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...subject, however, the representatives should immediately return to their constitution for alterations. Article IV, Section 2b allows the council and its committees, "in extraordinary circumstances, by a two-thirds vote" to close any session to the public. We carelessly overlooked the clause in our initial endorsement of the document last spring but hope that that the government will remove what could be used as a tool to separate representatives from their constituents and the press. All meetings should be completely open...
...civilian casualties, and more specifically the American strategic option known as "counter-value," which targets political, economic and military institutions in or near urban areas for retaliation. "Under no circumstances may nuclear weapons or other instruments of mass slaughter be used for the purpose of destroying population centers," the document states. It adds an injunction that, if applied, would pose a dilemma for Catholics in the strategic chain of command: "No Christian can rightfully carry out orders or policies deliberately aimed at killing noncombatants...
Despite its detailed prescriptions, the document is presented as a theological tract, suffused with "the good news which has come to us in the person of Jesus." It invokes a biblical vision of peace to reach its clear theme: "We must continually say no to the idea of nuclear war." It also draws on the theological theory of a "just war," first propounded in the 5th century by St. Augustine, who justified force to restrain those who would harm the innocent. Since Vatican II, some Catholics have rejected the just-war theory in favor of a pacifist option. But ironically...
...ideals, and of the forthcoming Confessions of a Catholic, a reflection on the Nicene Creed. As a student of both strategic and theological questions, Novak finds the argument made in the draft pastoral letter of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to be seriously flawed both as a political document and as a religious one. "They are overreaching," he says. "The desire to speak like prophets is sometimes only hubris...
...defends nuclear deterrence as a way of preserving peace, primarily challenges the bishops on strategic grounds. "Their position would make war much more likely," he says. He feels the underlying political flaw is blindness to the Soviet threat. "What is amazing is the profound anti-Americanism of the document," he insists. "You cannot face this moral question without facing the reality of the Soviet Union. The bishops are holding Europe hostage to abstract thinking, because the absence of an American deterrent would raise the probability of a Soviet invasion. You don't qualify as a peacemaker just because...