Sir - A few weeks ago the Catholic Church celebrated World Life Day, an occasion which brought to mind the following reflections.
For 300 years, to be a Christian was by definition to be a conscientious objector to military service. This was one of the causes of the persecutions against Christians in the Roman Empire.
In the name of protecting the lives of one human group, war validates the destruction of members of another human group. War gives priority to some lives over others.
For 1,700 years, on both sides of countless wars, human beings have carried out the violent destruction of other human beings with the blessing of their respective churches.
Why, in the face of this absurdity, doesn't the Church declare war on war and campaign for the abolition of armies, which are the instruments of war, and for the abolition of the manufacture of weapons, which are the instruments of armies?
It has taken nearly two millenia for the Church to declare its total opposition to slavery. Will it take as long again for it to state its opposition to war and to the civil and state institutions and the non-inclusive world view that perpetuate it?
If, when we read Jesus's admonition to Peter at Gethsemanai, we replaced the word "sword" by its modern equivalents of cluster-bombs, chemical, biological, nuclear or even propaganda weapons, would we hear more clearly His word of life, of a weaponless life?
Would it encourage us to attempt to translate that word into our country's legal and constitutional framework?
Perhaps it is only an unarmed life that is capable of both justice and peace. - Yours, etc.,
Madelaine Nerson-Macnamara, Tara Court, Glasheen Road, Cork.