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There's No Deterring the Catholic Bishops

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

J. Bryan Hehir
Affiliation:
J. BRYAN HEHIR is the Joseph Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics at Georgetown University, and is the Counselor for Social Policy of the U.S. Catholic Conference.

Abstract

This article uses two episcopal texts published by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops during the 1980s as a case study of the role of ethics in the foreign policy process. No longer a topic for theologians, philosophers, and lawyers alone, as in past decades, the morality of foreign affairs is now a matter of public discourse and political strategy. The size and social diversity of the Catholic church, the convergence of its stands on anti-communism and anti-nuclear weaponry, and the cosmic nature of the nuclear threat allowed the bishops to make transnational references reaching into all corners of the globe. The church-state exchange introduced the ethics of consequences and promoted moral debate about strategic foreign policy and deterrence.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1989

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References

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