Active Peacebuilding as a Challenging task of Catholic Social Ethics

Abstract

The Fifth Commandment is one of those commandments that are negatively formulated. Its wording is unambiguous, and acclaims: Thou shalt not kill! Yet, the history of humankind on our Blue Planet is rather marked with military conflicts than peace. Regardless of a high likelihood of constantly recurring military conflicts, and despite an intense involvement of Christian culture of Europe in lots of military solutions of such conflicts in the course of history, Christian theology has always been opposed to killing as a way of resolving problems. At the most, the Church admitted that in certain instances of conflict resolution killing cannot be avoided, and it frequently referred to a just or defensive war, and developed its theological justification. In the society of that time, it was not easy to take a completely negative position on killing as advocated by many pacifists, or a number of Christianity-oriented sects (such as Quakers in Pennsylvania in the USA and the like). Still, only since the Second Vatican Council there has been discussion on active peacebuilding and preconditions under which it could work.