Catholicism & Buddhism: War and Peace
Roman Catholics and Buddhism both don’t like violence (war) but believe in peace. Roman Catholics must not love violence instead; they must promote peace whenever possible. They were once taught that pacifists were the enemies of humankind and that war was just a responsibility if it was a ‘just war’. But now this is no longer an official teaching and that Catholics have a pacifist tradition where churches argue and refuse to participate in violence such as capital punishment and warfare, but Roman Catholics still believe in Just War only for self defense but not to take offense at first, war is wrong for Roman Catholics, but they must use self defense for whatever cause there is to protect the religion, this makes non-violence A MUST to promote peace in order to be a disciple of Christ as Christ says that peace comes from God and not from the world. This is peace of soul, peace of mind, peace of heart which surpasses all mere human endeavors and understanding. An example of this from the catechism is:
Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation. A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons -- especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons -- to commit such crimes (CCC 2314). Buddhism possibly has the best record of all religions for non-violence, Buddhism is just as similar as they reject violence and clearly are pacifists from their teachings as Buddhists say ‘it is better to be killed than to kill’. The Buddha has advised everyone not to kill, whereas if a person is threatened, they are not allowed to kill out of self-protection only try to use their words to talk out of it. Some Buddhists are very active in promoting peace, where during the Vietnam War; some Buddhist monks burned themselves to death in self sacrificing protest against the war,
Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation. A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons -- especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons -- to commit such crimes (CCC 2314). Buddhism possibly has the best record of all religions for non-violence, Buddhism is just as similar as they reject violence and clearly are pacifists from their teachings as Buddhists say ‘it is better to be killed than to kill’. The Buddha has advised everyone not to kill, whereas if a person is threatened, they are not allowed to kill out of self-protection only try to use their words to talk out of it. Some Buddhists are very active in promoting peace, where during the Vietnam War; some Buddhist monks burned themselves to death in self sacrificing protest against the war,
Bibliography: Keown, Damien (1996) - Buddhism and Suicide --- The Case of Channa. (Internet) University of London, Gold Smiths. Available from: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma/suicide.html O’Brien, Barbara – War and Buddhism Unknown Author. Buddhist Ethics. (Internet). Unknown Publication: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/budethics.htm Trembath, Kerry (2008) – What is Buddhist Perspective on War and Peace? Croucher, Rowland (2003) – A Christian approach to War and Peace. (Internet) Unknown Publication. Available From: http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/4821.htm Young, David (2008) – War & Peace – A Christian View Unknown Author (2009) – Buddhism and War. (Internet) Unknown Publication. Available From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/buddhistethics/war.shtml