Scholars, experts say world needs renewed Catholic political theory

Published: 2004-04-29

ROME (CNS) -- While holding different opinions about the moral legitimacy of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Catholic philosophers and theologians and legal and defense experts agreed that the church's moral teaching on politics and war must be rediscovered and renewed. The world needs the updated voice of the Catholic Church to promote international relations and policies that truly protect the dignity of the human person in a changing world, said U.S. Catholic commentator George Weigel, one of the organizers of an April 28-29 academic discussion. Under the sponsorship of the philosophy faculty at Rome's Gregorian University, about a dozen scholars met for a one-day, closed-door discussion and a one-day public conference on "Catholic Thought and World Politics in the 21st Century." Antonio Maria Baggio, a philosopher and one of the conference organizers, said "neoconservatives" in the United States, including Weigel and Michael Novak, tried to explain that the war in Iraq was morally legitimate by basing it on the "classical" formulation of the just-war theory without taking into account the development of the church's teaching over the centuries.

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