A Summary and Critical Analysis of the U.S. Catholic Bishop's Draft Letter--The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response.

Abstract

This report opens with a 1500 word summary of the Bishop's 24,000 word draft pastoral letter. A critical analysis of each of the document's four sections follows. The final chapter offers a view of the impact of this letter on military preparedness. There are only two moral injunctions addressed to Catholic military personnel: it is immoral to target cities and the arms race is condemned as dangerous and wasteful of resources. The admonition against a first strike with nuclear weapons is ambigeous enough to permit individual interpretation. Intentional targeting of cities has been outlawed by international conventions and agreements for years. The arms race condemnation is so non-specific that its effect on U.S. military personnel is nil. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1983
Accession Number
ADA130490

Entities

People

  • John H. Roscoe

Organizations

  • Air War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Arms Control
  • Defense Industry
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • Military Personnel
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Warfare
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Public Policy
  • Strategic Weapons
  • Students
  • Treaties
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Philosophy

Readers

  • Business Analytics
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Strategic Security Studies