Catholic Morality And Right To Self Defense

Thanks to Pewsitter today, I found an excellent treatise on the right to self-defense as found in Catholic tradition.  The author refers both to Summa Theologica (click here and go to Article 7) and the Catholic Catechism, summarizing the conditions under which the use of lethal force may be allowed and even mandated.

I suggest that all read it.  One interesting point he makes is why so many abortion proponents seem keen on depriving us of the means of self-defense - and he makes perfect sense.  The progressives who push for abortion and the destruction of the traditional family wish to make the state into a de facto deity.  The right to self defense comes from God - a source outside the state.  Thus they perceive this right as a supreme threat to their state-idol. Their puppets in the USCCB and various chanceries are merely doing their bidding to make people more dependent upon, and subservient to the state-idol.  Why are these preceding sentences italicized?  You'll see below!

A perfect "case-in-point" occurred yesterday in the online edition of the Not-So Catholic Reporter.  The bloviations typical for that rag run rampant throughout the article, calling for disarming the citizen (What?  Do you  think crooks are going to obey gun laws and surrender their arms?)  One source of the whining is John Gehring of Faith in Public Life.  My Catholic Media Coalition colleague, Stephanie Block, exposed Faith in Public Life for the left-wing front organization that it is.  Here's another piece that she did.  Faith in Public Life has taken money from George Soros.  So much for their credibility when it comes to things Catholic.

Another key whiner is none other than the USCCB.  They issued a statement that says in a footnote (tucked away so we nasty right-wing bloggers don't notice!), "However, we believe that in the long run and with few exceptions -- i.e., police officers, military use -- handguns should be eliminated from our society."  Now compare this statement to the italicized sentences two paragraphs prior to this one.  The USCCB is indeed spouting the talking points of their progressive puppet-masters.  They are doing so even to the point of dissenting from Catholic moral teaching in regards to the right to self defense.  To me, that means that the push to disarm that may come from "social justice" arms of chanceries and conferences must be opposed and resisted as the departures from morality that they are.