Summer 1972

Page 96

208

CHICAGO STUDIES

These questions do not presume to be a comprehensive analysis of the moral issues involved in the Vietnam war. The actions of our adversaries should be placed under the same kind of examination for a complete picture. The issues raised here are designed to be illustrative of the type of specific analysis needed in a comprehensive analysis of the war. C. CaBes. The preceding discussion of Vietnam has been designed to show how specific cases must be part of Church teaching on international issues. Two brief comments will suffice for this topic. First, it should be obvious from a review of international affairs today that a plethora of issues beyond Vietnam require attention; these range from economic policy, to strategic arms policy and arms control to environmental and population policy to the role of international institutions. Secondly, commentary on specific cases need not be, and hopefully will not be, only of the critical genre of the Vietnam discussion. There is also a role for the Church in building public support behind controversial but necessary and farsighted policies such as the SALT policy and the recent shift in our policy to engage China fully¡ in the life of the international community. CONCLUSION

An essential dimension of the argument proposed here about the Church in international affairs cannot be included in this article, already grown too long. It is the place of the priest in this ministry. It is critically important, but too complex for summary comments. How to cultivate in people an appreciation of the issues discussed here; how specific he should or should not be in the pulpit; what the relationship between his teaching and his active witness on issues should be are questions which require another article. What can be said here is that working in the sector of the Church where he confronts part of the constituency of the most active participant in world politics means that ignoring the issues of international affairs as superfluous to ministry, out of the range of his responsibility, is surely a misreading of ministry in the Church today.


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Summer 1972 by Chicago Studies - Issuu