MILAN, Italy (CNS): Defining the Cold War as the “third world war”, Italian Cardinal Renato Martino said terrorism appears to have unleashed the “fourth world war” in a way that touches almost everyone in every part of the globe.
The cardinal, who is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, spoke on September 6 at an interreligious meeting for peace sponsored by the Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio.
Terrorism on the scale seen since September 11, 2001, has become a type of war outside the bounds of “all of the political and juridical canons (consolidated by a very long tradition” for defining war and regulating combat, he said.
The reaction, the cardinal said, particularly in the “preventative war” on Iraq proclaimed by the United States and its coalition partners, is also outside the bounds of traditionally accepted definitions of national self-defence.
Cardinal Martino previously has said that the war on Iraq was not justified, but that once the coalition forces invaded they had an obligation to stay and to provide security while the new Iraqi government is formed and consolidated.
The Christian contribution, he said, must be a more concerted effort to teach and live the truth that God is love and demands that those who believe in him love all men and women.
