Lane Core has posted an excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia on war and just war. A very interesting quote from it:
Catholic philosophy, therefore, concedes to the State the full natural right of war, whether defensive, as in case of another?s attack in force upon it; offensive (more properly, coercive), where it finds it necessary to take the initiative in the application of force; or punitive, in the infliction of punishment for evil done against itself or, in some determined cases, against others.
Unfortunately, some would say that the Catechism, an act of the ordinary magisterium, trumps the Catholic Encyclopedia, a work mainly of non-magisterial theologians and others, but I would reply that the encyclopedia represents the gathered thinking of the magisterium through the ages and not just a personal opinion.
