2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.If a teacher FAILS to be properly armed and ready to shoot an intruder dead, has that teacher committed a mortal sin?
Hmmm... Grave matter, full knowledge, refusal to do as Christ commands - quite possibly "yes."
I can choose to be a martyr myself, but I cannot choose, by my action or inaction, to make someone else a martyr. I cannot refuse to arm myself because I don't like the idea that I might have to use deadly force to protect the ones who have been placed in my care.
Now, when Cardinal O'Malley called for "more gun laws", perhaps he really did mean to say that all teachers should be trained in deadly force.
If that wasn't what he meant, he may want to read the Catechism.
5 comments:
Steve - O'Malley isn't a Catholic bishop ... he's an automatically excommunicated group leader for Satan's vatican-2 heretic cult ... which rejects the Catholic Dogma across the board.
Proof on Section 12 of Immaculata-one.com.
Council of Florence, Session 11, 4 February 1442 -- Ex-Cathedra Dogma >
"The Holy Roman Church ... condemns, reproves, anathematizes and declares to be outside the body of Christ, which is the Church, whoever holds opposing or contrary views."
Teachers should be armed. They're 'loco parentis' by the very nature of their profession, so they should be allowed, nay ordered, to pack heat to protect their charges. If ateacher objects to this, he/she shouldn't be allowed to teach.
The CCC says defense of others can be a duty. It doesn't spell out exactly how someone has to carry out that defense.
Do we know if any of the teachers tried to defend the children? You don't need a gun to try defending yourself, although if you're attacker has a gun and you don't you are certainly at a disadvantage. I'm not pushing gun control, just saying that claiming the CCC mandates armed school teachers under pain of mortal sin is a bit of a stretch. Do priests have to carry during Mass so they can gun down any intruders that break in during the liturgy? What about the Pope? He should be packing all the time, considering all the faithful he's responsible for.
Personally, I think our school teachers should be more worried millstones being tied around their necks for leading the little ones in their charge into sin through the normal Godless course of instruction.
One other point. Steve, you seem to be assuming that the school shooting was an unjust act. If so, I'd agree with you. But how do you know? I mean, it's something to consider for all those who supported the invasion of Iraq and the ongoing "war on terror" who claimed Bush must have known something we didn't, that justified invading other countries. Perhaps the school shooter knew something we didn't that justified his actions?
These problems would all be greatly minimized if we did the sensible, Catholic thing and got rid of compulsory schools.
Read the article you linked to. If it wasn't an ommision on the reporter's part, it's sad that the Cardinal didn't make the obvious connection between the murder of the unborn, whom he was celebrating Mass for, and the murders at the school.
Men seek out truth. The message of our culture, that murdering millions of children in the womb is a right and murdering dozens of children at an elementary school is a crime makes no sense, and is based on a purely arbitrary distinction. Some life is precious, and other life is garbage. That's a lie. Perhaps the shooter realized it and saw that there are two possibilities that make far more sense:
1) All life is precious.
2) No life is precious.
Unfortunately, it seems the shooter picked the wrong answer.
Brilliant point, Steve. We are moral imbeciles these days.
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