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  6. Catholic Theologians Question the Morality of Ukraine’s Violent Resistance
Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces members take a position at a checkpoint in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6, 2022. On Day 11 of Russia's war on Ukraine, Russian troops shelled encircled cities, and it appeared that a second attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol had failed due to continued violence. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces members take a position at a checkpoint in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6, 2022. On Day 11 of Russia's war on Ukraine, Russian troops shelled encircled cities, and it appeared that a second attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol had failed due to continued violence. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Catholic Theologians Question the Morality of Ukraine’s Violent Resistance

David DeCosse, director of religious and Catholic ethics, quoted by Religion News Service.

Catholic moral theologians uniformly condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine but debate the proper response.

David DeCosse of Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics is “moved by the examples of non-violence happening now in Ukraine and persuaded by the wisdom and promise of the just peace framework.

But DeCosse hesitates to say “how far we take the assumption that violence breeds more violence.” He thinks “that is usually the case. But I wonder, too, if there are some situations in which the only way out of the cycle of the violence is violence for the sake of justice.”

David DeCosse, director of religious and Catholic ethics, quoted by Religion News Service.

Mar 8, 2022
Ethics
religion, media

Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo