Almost all religious traditions are so closely associated with violence. For example, Buddhism and Jainism are religions founded on the principle of compassion and nonviolence towards all beings. Islam and Judaism that highlight justice and peace reject the use of violence and war as a means to settle conflicts. Moreover, church traditions called `peace church’ completely rejects the use of violence (Ariarajha, 2004). “It is all too common for religious leaders to place the blame on social and political forces for the association between religion and violence”(Ariarajha, 2004, p.59). In other words, obviously, religions could contribute to the public debate through the religious leaders advocate non-violence and justify it. However, there could be two problems about violence in the public debate. Firstly, violence is justified as ‘self-defense’ in the court of law with using the ‘just-war theory’ in Christian thinking. Therefore, how the U.S government justified going to war and the response to it from Catholic Church are going to be discussed. The second problem could be why religions so intimately are involved in situations of violent conflict even though their traditions are based on non-violence. Political and social factors to resolve this contradiction should be considered. This essay will treat these problems from Catholic Church’s view and discuss them through the use of two social justice issues: ‘war on Iraq’ and ‘the handling of refugees’.
Almost all religious traditions are so closely associated with violence. For example, Buddhism and Jainism are religions founded on the principle of compassion and nonviolence towards all beings. Islam and Judaism that highlight justice and peace reject the use of violence and war as a means to settle conflicts. Moreover, church traditions called `peace church' completely rejects the use of violence (Ariarajha, 2004). "It is all too common for religious leaders to place the blame on social and p...