Pope John Paul II on the Iraq war/occupation

Most media outlets seem to be ignoring Pope John Paul II's moral condemnation of the U.S.'s 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Pope spoke officially, from his moral seat, about the unjust nature of pre-emptive war. He offered an unequivocal assessment of pre-emptive strikes, citing both official doctrine of the Catholic Church as well as Thomistic thought (the writings of Thomas Aquinas that inform just-war theory) in order to morally condemn the invasion.

Media Matters does an excellent job refuting the right-wing distortions of the Pope's position on the war. My favorite of these distortions is Fox "News"'s assertion that the Pope's moral position on the war was a result of his bowing to pressure from his lieutenants. Come again? Pope JPII, no matter what you think of him, was NOT a leader who bowed to pressure. He faced enormous pressure to re-think his positions on the laity's role in church leadership, women and the church, birth control, and a slew of other issues about which his opinion was controversial. He faced enormous pressure from his inner circle not to apologize for the Vatican's historic anti-semitism--but made that apology anyway.

My second favorite of the distortions--one that Media Matters doesn't deal with--is the construction of the Pope as an ideological ally of Ronald Reagan. Yes, they both hated communism. But look more deeply at the record. Throughout the 80s, John Paul II consistently re-affirmed just-war theory and its abhorrence for the brands of fascism that Reagan was supporting (financially and militarily) in Latin America.

What a month we've had for cheap political co-opting of human life. Terry Shiavo--co-opted, her life turned into opportunities for political gain. Same with the Pope. His life and his life's work twisted and spun and reduced to partisan one-upsmanship. Look, the Pope took public positions consistent with conservative American politics: opposition to abortion and homosexuality. He took public positions consistent with progressive American politics: opposition to pre-emptive war and the death penalty. The Pope aligned himself with the battle to bring down communist regimes. He aligned himself with liberation movements for self-rule and the toppling of U.S.-backed fascism in central America. I agree with the Pope about some issues (the just war notion that military action by all nations, including the U.S., must meet ethical standards, for example) and disagree with him about others (the ordination of women, for example). Rush Limbaugh et al: stop using his life for your own narrow-ass agenda!

Good sources on just-war theory:
Just-War Theory (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
The American Catholic
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

**Thanks to Fr. Art McGovern, SJ, a professor mine from my undergrad. days, who introduced me to Catholic social justice teaching. I took Fr. McGovern's class in Ethics during freshman year and Peace and Social Justice during junior year. Both classes involved lots of reading, writing, debating, and attending various events in Detroit (before "service learning" was talked about much). Fr. McGovern embodied Jesuit education and liberal learning. His book "Marxism, an American Christian Perspective" is invaluable. Rest in peace.