Editorials

...November meeting, full debate was encouraged...

...We are learning, Archbishop John Roach, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in his closing press conference...

...The bishops have not yet answered these questions to their own satisfaction, as Archbishop Bernardin candidly pointed but in reporting on the committee's work...

...At its worst, of course, deterrence can simply be a rhetorical cloak for one-or other of the nuclear powers actually to seek a position of preponderance in world affairs...

...and there was some reason to believe that, among other things, he had the exceptional impact of this latest statement, as contrasted with earlier ones, in mind...

...The problems such conclusions pose for the doctrine of deterrence are obvious...

...What will happen between now and the May meeting when a final vote is anticipated...

...As well as weighing the many thoughtful criticisms raised at the November meeting, the drafting committee will have to give further thought to the implications of their no-first-use position for the defense of Western Europe, as Europen governments and hierarchies are already letting them know...

...Not so many years ago, while agreeing with the bishops on the immorality of abortion and the necessity of reversing the effects of a disastrous Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, we raised serious questions about the way the bishops had chosen to pursue their position politically...

...They reaffirm the Council's condemnation of direct attacks on civilian populations and accordingly announce a clear rejection of counter-population warfare...

...And later: "To say 'no' to nuclear war is both a necessary and a complex task...

...And there is good reason to think they may not be able to resolve the difficulties in the months of redrafting ahead...

...They warn against the use of deterrence as grounds for a dangerous arms buildup...

...and the fact that, having heard it, they failed to mention it more than hints at some disbelief about the government's priorities on arms control...

...The bishops have quite rightly connected (heir concern with nuclear warfare to their earlier concern with abortion, but some feminists attending the November meeting also quite rightly contrasted die different procedures the bishops used jn dealing with the two topics...

...failures in the pursuit of arms control...

...The bishops, it is safe to say, have been far more humble in the face of their task than a good many of their critics...

...In the 1950s, we dissented from the not quite so unanimous approval of Joe McCarthy's antiCommunist crusade in cold-war America...

...The bishops had two sessions in which to pursue discussion in small groups...

...Beyond all that, the drafters must improve upon the ragged performance some of the bishops have given in the media, learning to distinguish between individual views and the positions of their common document...

...Ambiguity, said Archbishop Roach a bit ambiguously at his closing press conference, may be more inherent to the process of moral teaching than it has been presumed...

...They support a nuclear freeze and a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty...

...Again, at the bishops...

...In the cobrse of going through two drafts, the pastoral letter has probably been better publicized and more carefully scrutinized than any previous such document...

...Thus the bishops repeatedly condemn the slide toward nuclear "war fighting," either in weaponry, strategy, defense preparations, or official rhetoric...

...was resolved never to use them immorally - no adversary, after all, could really be certain how this nation would react under the actual conditions of nuclear attack or threat...

...Can one unqualifiedly condemn such preparation with the knowledge that the condemnation, taken seriously, might actually increase the likelihood of such an act being committed...

...At its best, however, deterrence aims at preventing this immoral and catastrophic use of nuclear weapons precisely by posing the possibility of such (immoral and catastrophic) use if the adversary were to do so first...

...The fireworks surrounding their deliberations should be evidence of that...

...Whether they explicate his declaration or develop their own argument will amount to the same thing, if they are not to stand fast with a simple appeal to authority...

...We see with much less clarity how we translate a 'no' to nuclear war into the personal and public choices which can move us in a new direction...

...It would be tragic if a false image of their work were irreparably fixed in the public mind before a third draft can even emerge...

...Back in the 1930s, Commonweal dissented from the nearly, unanimous tendency of the bishops to see the hand of God in Generalissimo Franco's antiCommunist crusade in civil wartorn Spain...

...They oppose weapons like the MX that "give credence to the concept that the U.S: seeks a first strike.'' They demand the severest scrutiny of all new weapons systems for their possible destabilizing impact...

...But on many of the core issues of the morality of deterrence, we have been as troubled as many of the bishops are, more perplexed, it seems, than many of our pacifist friends at The Catholic Worker or Sojourners or even at the National Catholic Reporter...

...their very process is a milestone in American Catholic history...

...The pope has helped them by stating, in his address to the UN Special Session on Disarmament last i June, that deterrence is "morally acceptable" - "not as an end in itself but as a step on the way toward progressive disarmament...

...Apart from substituting "acceptable" for "tolerable," this formulation is not really different from that of Cardinal Krol in his 1979 testimony in support of SALT...

...Indeed, the committee itself was consciously shaped to assure that opposing viewpoints would be considered...

...This pastoral letter is more 9n invitation to continue the new appraisal of war and peace than a final synthesis," the bishops write...

...The bishops have been helped, for the moment, in dealing with this problem by two distinct personages - John Paul H and Ronald Reagan...

...The White House, in the "counter-pastoral" written py William Clark, argued that its arms reduction proposals qualified die administration's defense policies for episcopal approval...

...The openness of this process is reflected in the draft of the pastoral letter itself...

...Unfortunately, "possession" is not quite a fair description of the real conditions of hair-trigger readiness that now f characterize our nuclear armament, and would necessarily characterize it if deterrence were to succeed...

...The pope has not yet supported his statement with a full-blown theological explanation - which is what the bishops are trying to provide...

...The final open debate further allowed a wide variety of criticism to be voiced forcefully...

...It is no automatic piety, then, that makes us greet with so much admiration the achievement of the bishops in formulating and debating a pastoral letter on war and peace in a nuclear age...

...Despite the draft's frank avowal that pondering the full complexities of nuclear arps and deterrence has been "a sobering and perplexing experience," it cannot be concluded that the bishops have refused to take a firm stand...

...While acknowledging division among moralists on the question, the ' bishops "as a matter of practical moral guidance" also oppose "a policy of attacking [military] targets which lie so close to concentration of population that destruction of the target would devastate the nearby population centers...

...policy...

...Certainly, Commonweal has long been critical of specific arms proposals issuing from the Pentagon, and of U.S...

...The bishops can expect many more attacks on their "competence" to deal with the nuclear question , some of them coming from individuals whose own claims to competence appear to rest on little more than the fact that they are not bishops...

...Relying on a papal statement is a secure way to obtain consensus among the bishops, but it is only a stopgap...

...Can one nation prepare to commit a massively immoral act in the very hope of forestalling the commission of s,uch an act by any other nation...

...Their pacifist position is argued in a fashion that challenges a prevailing Catholic concern with consequences and rests on a view of God's providence that, in our view, mis century's "signs of the times" do not support...

...and Jt leaves open the question of criteria for deciding whether progress toward nuclear disarmament is genuinely under way...

...They can expect more pressure from the -administration, perhaps even exerted through Rome...

...Nor is it the factthat the bishops have arrived at some position we already considered our own...

...We have followed the bishops' deliberations - and tried to contribute to them - not simply in hopes that they might endorse "our" opinion but in a spirit of genuine searching...

...But they also indicated that they had heard it before...

...Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, has helped the bishops by serving up such a menu of new weapons proposals as to make it clear that even their' 'lack of unequivocal condemnation of deterrence" -to quote the draft-is nonetheless a real moral challenge to the current direction, of U.S...

...No Christian can rightfully carry put orders or policies deliberately aimed at killing noncombatants" Furthermore, the bishops conclude, "it is an unacceptable moral risk to initiate nuclear war in any form," a position directly challenging the current NATO policy of "first-use-if-necessary...

...Some like Bishop Hunthausen have, of course, urged a condemnation of nuclear arms that would include all forms of deterrence...

...This openness and humility have been rewarded...

...To begin with...

...The drafting committee listened to a wide range of "witnesses," representing different kinds of expertise and different points of view...

...With two drafts of the pastoral letter down, and one to go, the overwhelming majority of the bishops, meeting in Washington, have indicated their basic agreement with the work so far: And with good reason- The bishops have proceeded thoughtfully, openly, responsibly...

...The five opening commentators - Bishop Hunthausen, Archbishop Quinn, Cardinal Krol, Cardinal Cooke, and Archbishop Hannan - were selected so that a range of criticism could be put on the floor...

...The bishops politely replied that they would listen tp the administration's argument...

...On the other hand, many bishops would like to see deterrence justified as simple "possession" of nuclear weapons, which could have their deterring effect even though the U.S...

...We see with clarity the political folly of a system which threatens mutual suicide...

...The first draft, a remarkable document in itself, was reworked to assimilate, when called for, the reams of comments that it received...

...We have not been disappointed...

...Inevitably, the press will simplify and stereotype their thinking, as pacifist, as naive, or, condescendingly, as ''idealistic...

...As an independent lay journal, Commonweal has been highly aware of the varieties of opinion among the Catholic population and of the complexities of translating moral teachings into specific public policies...