What is the Vatican's stand on war against terrorism post 9/11 analysis

Abstract

The first thing that I have done in this thesis is an assessment on what really happened on the international scene after 9/11. I tried to understand what is really going on in the back of the minds of terrorists. But not just that, much more important was to understand the reaction of the victims of the terrorist attacks, especially those who believe that they must counter attack these terrorists through a war which they call War on Terror. At this point, I tried to point out clearly what arguments are brought from both sides in order to justify their actions. In fact they both maintain that their actions are justified. Even more they both argue that what they are doing can be even blessed by god. Extremes on both sides can even say that what is being fought can he considered as the new crusades of the third millennium. From the terrorist point of view they live this experience as if they are fighting a holy war. Their main aim is to combat all the infidels that by their extreme capitalism and consumerism, have lost their submission to god In this theme where the words God, holy, and war are regarded as keywords, the inclusion of the intervention of the Church can be brought in naturally. The Vatican apart from the fact that it is the centre of the Catholic Church; it is also an independent state. One of its aims is to assure that social Justice and peace, as preached by its founder Jesus Christ, are observed in all states. It is not the first time that the Church has spoken up when certain international problems arose, especially during wars and conflicts. By a look at the church's social teaching I am going to see how the just war philosophy evolved through the ages. We can say that it began with St Augustine's teaching and evolved till our time reaching the climax with the encyclical letter of Pope John XXIII Pacem in Terris. The style how wars are fought changed completely from the time of St. Augustine to our century. The events of 9/11 shocked the entire world and in the late Pope John Paul II words these events are of an "unspeakable horror". Then I gave a detailed account on what is the Vatican's thinking on these terrorist attacks. On the other hand I am going to analyzed in detail what the church has said on the counter attack that was organized against the so called "axis of evil". This is a crucial point in my thesis because it is where I analyzed if the just war philosophy is being used in this context, or not. Finally from the conclusion of this work I managed to answer some important questions: is there a just war against terror? Is the stand taken by the Vatican relevant in today's international relations? Is the Vatican presenting real solutions in front of the international community so that it can reach the most desired peace?