Statement
In the Name of Peace: Collective Statements on War and Peace
In the Name of Peace: Collective Statements of the United States Catholic Bishops on War and Peace, 1919-1980
The fourteen selections that follow will give the reader an overview of the collective positions the American hierarchy has taken on war-making and peace-keeping in the twentieth century. We have tried to be representative, not comprehensive. While covering every issue of substance the bishops have addressed, we make no effort to reproduce their every word. Statements that merely repeat material found elsewhere have been omitted.
The purpose of this book is to make the bishops' teaching available in convenient form. Ten of the selections represent complete statements. The other four are self-contained sections of longer works that deal with a variety of topics. We offer no interpretation. For ease of use, however, we have provided a prefatory note for every text. These notes underline the selections' sequential character by giving a few lines of historical background. They also summarize the principal points each text makes.
Despite its selectivity, the book contains most of what the bishops have written on war and peace. While the two world wars naturally focused the hierarchy's attention on this issue, they were the only occasions that did so during the first sixty years of the century. Absent actual fighting, the bishops showed more interest in the domestic scene than in international relations.
It is only in the last two decades that war and peace has become one of the American hierarchy's central public policy concerns. Several developments are responsible for this new emphasis. Participation in the Second Vatican Council fostered the growth of an international perspective among the bishops. Vietnam dragged relentlessly on, with combat in remote jungles and turmoil at home. The unrelieved cold war made hot war an ever-present possibility. Finally, the perfection of thermonuclear weapons and their delivery systems raised grisly prospects of a world aflame and dying.
The statements are an exercise of the teaching office. Through them, the bishops meet their weighty responsibility to help Catholics form their consciences in the nuclear age. At the same time, the statements place the Church in the public forum, making her "a moral voice placing restraints on war, a prophetic voice calling for peace and a prayerful community which has the courage to work for peace.