Dear Father Angelo, 

I have been reading your responses to the questions posed by various faithful for some time now, and I have decided to ask you to clarify some of my doubts regarding the choice I find myself making for my future. I am a nineteen-year-old first-year engineering student, but this is not what I want to do: over the years, I have developed a growing desire to enter the military academy, graduate there, become an officer, and serve in the army. However, this strong desire of mine has encountered some obstacles that make me think a lot and have even led me not to choose to pursue this path immediately after high school but to wait for a year, as I am currently doing. These obstacles are: on one hand, the disappointment of my parents in hearing from me that my intention is to be a military officer; on the other hand, the compatibility of some aspects of this choice with my faith. And this is where I ask for your help. As a military person, I could obviously find myself in situations where my actions would lead to taking the lives of men, not to mention that I could be the one to find myself killing. When I confess all this, how can I obtain absolution, if it is necessary, in addition to repentance, the sincere desire not to commit the confessed sins again, while I, doing it as a job, will be aware that I might have to return to killing or causing death? Furthermore, the state I would serve is a secular state, which, as we know, has in recent decades already carried out legislation and initiatives contrary to the Christian faith (I think of abortion, but not only) and which could promote others in the future. As strong as my respect for institutions as such and the desire to serve other people and my country (feelings that I believe are in continuity with Catholicism) may be, I would find it very difficult to be a soldier and, therefore, a representative and servant of a state that is an enemy of my faith. So, this second question is very direct: can I serve and love God and the Church, as I know I must and want to do, always following my faith, and at the same time serve as a military person in this state? I apologize for the perhaps excessive length of my letter. However, I believe that every word was necessary to clearly and sincerely present all the doubts that torment me. I hope I have been clear. Thank you in advance for your response, and I remember you in my prayers. Best regards, Alberto

Priest’s Answer:

Dear Alberto,

  1. I want to make it clear right away that I won’t delve into whether it’s more convenient for you to become an engineer or enter military life. I will only observe that entering military life is a lawful and good thing. It is, in fact, a service rendered to society to defend it.
  2. Certainly, if there had been no original sin, there would have been no need for military life. But after original sin, since men are inclined to evil and are sometimes actually wicked, it is necessary for society to defend itself. As the Fathers of the Church, the ancient Christian authors, said, military service is a “painful necessity.”
  3. Pope Paul VI, when speaking at the UN on October 4, 1965, said: “As long as man remains weak and changeable, and as evil as he often shows himself to be, the weapons of defense will unfortunately be necessary. But you, courageous and valiant as you are, are studying how to ensure international life security without resorting to weapons.” Unfortunately, the representatives of nations at the UN have not studied how to ensure international security without resorting to weapons, or even if they have studied it, we have not seen the effects.
  4. The goal of military life is not to kill people but rather to defend against murder and any other subversive reality. The Second Vatican Council used beautiful expressions for the military, stating: “Those who, in the service of their country, bear arms in its defense should regard themselves as the agents of security and freedom of their people, and, if they fulfill this role properly, they truly contribute to the maintenance of peace” (Gaudium et spes, 79).
  5. Pope John Paul II, speaking to the students of the Alpine School of Aosta, reminded them: “Your first responsibility is called a commitment to peace. The military condition has its moral foundation in the need to defend the spiritual and material goods of the national community, the Homeland… and the fact remains that there is a need to guard against those temptations of aggression, injustice, and violence that often entice and distort the human spirit. There is indeed a situation of sin in humanity, which lurks in the hearts of people and tries to penetrate deeply into various layers of society. In this context, defense is prudence, right, a duty that commits men to continuous internal and external vigilance to prevent the outbreak of war… So be convinced, dear Alpines, that you are carrying out a work of peace” (September 7, 1987).
  6. If it happens that defense must sometimes use weapons, the goal is not to kill people but to dissuade them. And if this aggression were to continue and be violent, then “legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty, for someone responsible for the lives of others, the common good of the family, or the civil community” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2265).
  7. Here is how St. Thomas justifies, from a theological perspective, the possible killing of the aggressor: “Nothing hinders one act from having two effects, only one of which is intended, while the other is beside the intention. Now moral acts take their species according to what is intended, and not according to what is beside the intention, since this is accidental as explained above.

Accordingly the act of self-defense may have two effects, one is the saving of one’s life, the other is the slaying of the aggressor. Therefore this act, since one’s intention is to save one’s own life, is not unlawful, seeing that it is natural to everything to keep itself in “being,” as far as possible. 

And yet, though proceeding from a good intention, an act may be rendered unlawful, if it be out of proportion to the end. Wherefore if a man, in self-defense, uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repel force with moderation his defense will be lawful, because according to the jurists “it is lawful to repel force by force, provided one does not exceed the limits of a blameless defense” (vim vi repellere licet cum moderamine inculpatae tutelae). Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense in order to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s.” (Summa Theologica, II-II, 64, 7).

Therefore, if you choose military life, proceed confidently. You can become holy by following this path.
I bless you, wish you all the best, and remember you in my prayers. 

Father Angelo 

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