Violence and Injustice in Society: Recent Catholic Teaching

Abstract

VIOLENCE CAN OCCUR on different scales and in different contexts, from the terrifying forced intimacy of rape to the stunning desolation of nuclear bombardment. It has been one of the great constants in our literature and our history—from Cain and Achilles on. It enters into our understanding of such virtues as courage and patience. It is seen as both the instrument of justice and the enactment of malice. It is linked with the time of founding of the nation and of political order, and it brings about the destruction of empires. It enters into our conception of God Himself and into our account of His judgements on the peoples of the earth. Accordingly, it is and must remain a central topic for theological inquiry and reflection. But constant though violence is in human history, theological reflection on it always takes place within a cultural, social, and political context which is itself both complex and variable. This context is particularly diverse and rich in the case of Roman Catholicism, which is a transnational church with a long, checkered history and which has strong elements of the political both in its internal structure and in its stance to the larger world. In ministering to the various parts of its vast flock, Catholicism has had in the recent past to deal with the problems created by such different forms of violence as urban terrorism (Northern Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Argentina), civil war (Lebanon and El Salvador), tribal warfare (Africa), conventional naval warfare (the Falklands), the threat of violence implicit in mass political movements (Poland), military coups both actual and threatened (Latin America and Spain), rural terrorism carried on by both revolutionary groups and governments (Central America), the deployment of nuclear armaments (United States, United Kingdom, France), rioting by minority groups (United States, United Kingdom), arbitrary arrests, torture, executions, and disappearances carried on by governments directly or through paramilitary groups (Uganda, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil). There are also continuing forms of violence which are linked with long-standing social conditions, such as rising levels of violent crime in urban societies, or with cultural developments, such as the effects of the representation of violence in the various media. This listing is not intended to be exhaustive, but it does indicate the scale and the complexity of the problem of violence in