The Pope
Supports Self-defense and Defense of the State
This should be
very useful in contacting your Catholic clergy when they take an anti-gun
position, thereby endorsing denial of a human right acknowledged by the Pope,
who further states that it is a DUTY, as well as a right.
In
his Encyclical Letter from 1995, EVANGELIUM VITAE, Pope John Paul II writes:
"......Christian
reflection has sought a fuller and deeper understanding of what God's
commandment prohibits and prescribes. There are in fact situations in which
values proposed by God's Law seem to involve a genuine paradox. This happens
for example in the case of legitimate defense, in which the right to protect
one's own life and the duty not to harm someone else's life are difficult to
reconcile in practice. Certainly, the intrinsic value of life and the duty to
love oneself no less than others are the basis of a true right to
self-defense."
He goes on to
say:
"...legitimate
defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for
another's life, the common good of the family or of the State. Unfortunately,
it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm
sometimes involves taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome is
attributable to the aggressor whose actions brought it about, even though he
may not be morally responsible because of a lack of the use of reason."
The Catholics
who rebuke the right to self-defense are rebuking the Pope himself.
