{"id":43324,"date":"2023-08-01T12:57:18","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T20:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=43324"},"modified":"2023-08-01T13:49:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T21:49:25","slug":"a-famine-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/01\/a-famine-of-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"A Famine of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

There is a famine of peace in the world today. I came across that phrase, \u201cfamine of peace,\u201d in an article<\/a> in the New Yorker<\/em> that reported on a papal envoy sent to advocate for a truce and diplomacy to President Joe Biden. Biden, a practicing Catholic, gave the envoy a hearing, but as yet I\u2019ve heard no change from the White House with respect to sending more weapons to Ukraine and maximum support for the war effort.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis, working for peace, is exactly what I\u2019d expect from Christ\u2019s representative here on earth. Indeed, it is what I\u2019d expect from all Christians everywhere. Yet we continue to have a glut of war in the world, with plenty of war pigs feeding at the trough.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\n\"\"<\/picture>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi brought a message of peace to President Biden.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019m a lapsed Catholic, but I have nothing but respect when the Church does its best to embody, obey, and manifest Christ’s two commandments: love God, love thy neighbor. Being faithful to these commandments is everything for Christians.<\/p>\n

War is a terrible sin that enables and empowers so many other sins. Meanwhile, a famine of peace and a glut of war means terrible suffering for the world\u2019s most vulnerable. War is thus to be avoided or averted under nearly all circumstances; indeed, Christ implored us to turn the other cheek when we are struck.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read enough \u201cjust war\u201d theory to see how almost any war can be twisted as \u201cdefensive\u201d and \u201cnecessary.\u201d And I believe in rare circumstances the evil of war may be necessary to stop or prevent even worse evils, e.g. World War II put a stop to Nazi domination and the enslavement and massacre of millions of people, most especially Jews and gypsies, among other \u201cundesirables\u201d and \u201clesser humans\u201d according to Nazi ideology.<\/p>\n

The Pope in those days, Pius XII, did not speak forcibly enough to condemn the crimes of the Nazis. In Francis it is good to have a pope who\u2019s willing to speak of today\u2019s famine of peace. All Christians everywhere should look within to consider why peace is dying and war is thriving. Under these conditions, if we fail to act, do we dare even call ourselves \u201cChristian\u201d?<\/p>\n

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. There is a famine of peace in the world today. I came across that phrase, \u201cfamine of peace,\u201d in an article in the New Yorker that reported on a papal envoy sent to advocate for a truce and diplomacy to President Joe Biden. Biden, a practicing Catholic, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-43324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"Pope Francis wants to stop the killing in Ukraine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43324"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43327,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43324\/revisions\/43327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43324"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=43324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}