re: Why Mandami Frightens Jews Like Me (NY Times, 10/21/25)
Are there "well founded prospects of success" for Ukraine against Russia?
Photo by Sharon Waldron on Unsplash
483. When is it morally permitted to use military force?
The use of military force is morally justified when the following conditions are simultaneously present:
- the suffering inflicted by the aggressor must be lasting, grave and certain;
- all other peaceful means must have been shown to be ineffective;
- there are well founded prospects of success;
- the use of arms, especially given the power of modern weapons of mass destruction, must not produce evils graver than the evil to be eliminated.
(Compendium of the Catechism
of the Catholic Church)
Are there "well founded prospects of success" for Ukraine against Russia?
Without massive and continuing American financial support for Ukraine's war effort, the answer certainly appears to be an unqualified "no."
About the Author
Joe Tevington is a proudly orthodox Catholic, a husband since 1986, a dad to two adult children, a grandpa to two, and a civil service retiree. He is a sign language fluent certified rehabilitation counselor with graduate degrees in deafness rehabilitation, religious studies/moral theology, & Christian counseling psychology, as well as a catechetical diploma and certificates in benefits planning and Catholic social ministry. He deeply appreciates Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of the transmission of human life, as well as how they are to inform us in our apostolates and ministries.
On much lighter notes, he fancies himself to be the foremost authority on his native Brooklyn, when it comes to architecture, cinema, geography, history, Italian food, stick ball, stoop ball, or wiffle ball.
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