“There is something immoral or amoral in the constant statement: I think it would be wrong, morally wrong, stupid, foolish for us to get into the war, but if we should get in, then it’s the duty of all of us to rally behind the President. National unity before all else! National unity, even in the prosecution of an unjust war?

“If a war is unjust, then it must be opposed before the outbreak of hostilities and after. If a war is unjust I must refuse to be a party to the injustice after the declaration of war, as well as before.

“It is only when nationalism is put before conscience that leaders can do what they will with a country, and a country’s wealth, and a country’s blood. If leaders knew that the people would not follow them into an unjust war, if leaders knew that in an unjust declaration of war, they would have to build prisons and concentration camps to house thousands upon thousands of conscientious objectors, leaders would not lead us to war. A sit-down strike even on the barbed wire of a concentration camp is the only answer to an unjust participation in war.”

Fr. John P. Delaney, S.J.
The Catholic World, April 1941

Thanks to KG.

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