INTRINSIC EVIL

 

22. There are some things we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. Such actions are so deeply flawed that they are always opposed to the authentic good of persons. These are called “intrinsically evil” actions. They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned. . . .  

                              (USCCB  Faithful Citizenship 2007)

 

“The term ‘intrinsic evil’ is formidable and when used as the bishops do in their ‘Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship’ gives pause to the Catholic laity… The term is used almost exclusively in characterizing abortion.… It is my opinion that there are other intrinsically evil issues that should be analyzed…. 

 

I believe that the development, manufacture, stockpiling, deploying, and use of nuclear weapons are intrinsically evil. On August 6, 1945 a bomber of the United States Army Air Corps dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and in the blink of an eye wiped off the face of the earth 100,000 defenseless non-combatants.  And three days later we did it again.  I don't know what moral evaluation was undertaken before the act, but I know in hindsight it was an act of intrinsic evil.  Besides the deaths of the innocent we literally opened up Pandora's Box leading the way to a nuclear arms race which to date includes the five "nuclear weapons states" recognized by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) as having the capability, three non-signatory states who have the capability,  and several others suspected of having the capability.

 

Through the period known as the cold war two of these nations, the United States and the Russian Federation (formerly the USSR) developed, manufactured, stockpiled, and deployed thousands of even more powerful devices capable of laying to waste the world as we know it.  The only thing that has stayed the hand on the button is the aptly named MAD policy, mutually assured destruction.  In spite of the non-proliferation Treaty the numbers of warheads reached 32,000 for the U.S. and 45,000 for the Russian Federation (USSR) which each still have approximately 5,700 active/operational warheads. 

 

                             How do we eliminate this intrinsic evil from our society?”                           James T. Dette

 

James T. Dette is Secretary of Global Education Associates, a nongovernmental organization dealing in peace, social justice, and environmental issues, and a member of Essex Pax Christi.

 

People ARE working on the problem. The December 26, 2008 issue of the National Catholic Reporter included an article called, “Leaders’ declaration endorses a world without nuclear weapons” which stated:

 

One hundred world political, military, business and civic leaders launched a new initiative Dec. 9 in Paris to eliminate nuclear weapons globally in order to combat the threat of proliferation and nuclear terrorism.

 

The Global Zero declaration, endorsed by a “who’s who” of the world’s foreign policy aristocracy from the past 30 years, calls for a binding and verifiable agreement to dismantle and retire the world’s nuclear weapons.

…
The initiative will combine high-level policy work with global public outreach to achieve a binding agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons through phased reductions.

 

Global Zero will begin discussions at high levels in both Washington and Moscow in coming months. A world summit is planned for January 2010.

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                                                                                         2/01/09 Issue 5