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Torture is a Moral Issue

Torture is a Moral Issue

Last updated on: July 3, 2008 at 2:40 pm by Morning's Minion

Torture is a Moral Issue 2008-07-03T14:40:22-05:00 Morning's Minion

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This is the slogan of the National Religious Campiagn Against Torture, an umbrella organization of religious groups dedicated to ending US-sponsored torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Proclaiming that “torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear”, the campaign encompasses Catholics, evangelicals, other Protestants, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs. The US Catholic church has endorsed this campaign, and the USCCB has even issued its own study guide, entitled “Torture is a Moral Issue,”. It’s an excellent read, and does not shirk the key moral questions. About time!

The document has four chapters. The first talks about Catholic teaching on the dignity of the human person, and how torture is a violation of that dignity. The second focuses on torture itself, why it is such a crucial moral issue, and the Church’s response to it. Third, the document examines the gospel injunction to loves ones’ enemies and how that plays out in an atmosphere of war and terrorism. And finally, the bishops ask what people can do to end torture.

The first chapter is a pretty good discussion on inherent human dignity, and how it is rooted in both the Incarnation and the fact that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. We are therefore called to build a culture of life, to promote a consistent ethic of life, to treat the other as another self. Following that, the document gives a nice overview of the Church’s teaching on torture, endorsing international humanitarian law as codified in Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Pope Benedict is quoted praising this international humanitarian law as “one of the finest and most effective expressions of the intrinsic demands of the truth of peace” and that “precisely for this reason, respect for the law must be considered binding on all peoples.” The moral prohibitions apply to everybody (this should be brought to the attention of Catholic justices Scalia and Thomas who dissented from the Hamden case determining that Common Article 3 protections applied to Al Qaeda suspects).

The document provides instances of Church pronouncement on torture. As noted in the Compendium of Social Doctrine, “the prohibition against torture cannot be contravened under any circumstances.” In the US context, the Faithful Citizenship document declares that “The use of torture must be rejected as fundamentally incompatible with the dignity of the human person and ultimately counterproductive in the effort to combat terrorism.” One cannot apply consquentialist reasoning that the ends justify the mean or the validity of torture depends on circumstances, nor can one appeal to the “hellish” nature of war of the notion that “desperate times call for desperate measures”. The document refers specifically to a development of doctrine on torture over the centuries, culminating in Veritatis Splendour, when Pope John Paul named torture– condemned explicitly by the Second Vatican Council– as an intrinsically evil act. This teaching is acknowledged when the US bishops list torture among the intrinsically evils that must weigh upon the consciences of Catholics in the voting booth this year.

They also advise against getting tied up in the kinds of pointless debates that seem to dominate the Catholic blogosphere on this topic, such as how torture is defined and whether a particular practice constitutes torture. It notes that torture takes many different guises and includes acts like sleep deprivation, stress positions, waterboarding, and hooding for long periods. As Archbishop O’Brien of Baltimore noted, “common sense usually knows torture when one sees it.” In the end, the Church’s approach to torture must always reflect the fact that Jesus was tortured and murdered, as were many of the saints throughout history.

The third chapter expounds on the need to love one’s enemies, a uniquely demanding expectation. As Cardinal Martino noted, “Christians are called to cooperate for the defense of human rights and for the abolition of the death penalty, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment… these practices are grave crimes against the human person created in the image of God and a scandal for the human family.” Pope Benedict stressed that the gospel calls us to respond to evil with good and therefore break the chain of injustice. In this way, the Beatitudes constitute a “counter-cultural truth.”

Finally, the document asks, what can we do to end torture in our world? The shocking fact is that torture is still practised in over 150 countries, including the United States. There are ten listed suggested actions:

1. Listen to the voices of torture survivors. Bring in torture survivors to speak. They list the example of Sister Dianna Ortiz, tortured and raped by Guatemalan security forces simply because she was a champion of social justice.

2. End the use of euphemisms for torture. In particular, do not refer to torture as “enhanced interrogation techniques”.

3. Educate, educate, educate—and pray!

4. Consider signing a statement of conscience; make our voices heard. Over 180,000 people have already signed the “Torture is a Moral Issue” Statement of Conscience of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

5. Pray for our enemies or those who consider us their enemies. “To love those who have offended us is to disarm them and to turn a battlefield into an arena of mutual support and cooperation” (Pope John Paul). Should the prayers of intercession at Mass be praying for those who consider themselves our enemy?

6. Overcome evil in the world with goodness. Insist on the just war criteria being met, and avoid “the taking of innocent human life in miltary undertakings aimed at eliminating the scourge of terrorism” (Bishop Paul Loverde).

7. Participate in interreligious dialogue; know who our enemies are NOT. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin noted that when the enemy is difficult to define, “we have to be careful to avoid that everyone becomes a potential enemy”, to avoid regarding the combat against terror as a “war against the other”. Maybe George Weigel and his friends on the Catholic right needs to stop pumping up the evils of “jihadism”?

8. Prepare the young for a new world of dialogue. “Education for dialogue means nurturing the hope that conflict situations can be resolved through personal and collective commitment” (Cardinal Francis Arinze).

9. Fast for justice and peace; foster solidarity with torture victims. Fasting is a practice shared by Muslims and Christians, and can “assure our Muslim brothers and sisters of our love and respect, and remind ourselves that it is never right to indict a whole people for the crimes of a few.” (Cardinal Theodore McCarrick)

10. Promote justice in the world. As Pope Paul VI noted clearly, development is the new name for peace. Pope Benedict also stated that “true peace needs justice to correct the economic imbalances and political disturbances that give rise to tension an threaten every society.”

What a great document. My only regret is that it was not released four years earlier, when the torturers were running for election.

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