– the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or
community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain;
– all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be
impractical or ineffective;
– there must be serious prospects of success;
– the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders
graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of
modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in
evaluating this condition.
These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is
called the ‘just war’ doctrine.
The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy
belongs to the prudential judgement of those who have
responsibility for the common good.”¹
The first great Christian victories against the tide of Islam were achieved at
Constantinople (673-678 and 717-718), Covadonga in Spain (722) and
Poitiers in France (732). The Christians fought these battles as defensive
battles against an unjust aggressor. They had to fight, for Islam at the time
was in no mood for negotiation and if left unopposed, the damage inflicted
on the Christian world certainly would have been “lasting, grave and
certain.”
Despite suffering military setbacks in the early eighth century, Islam
retained its appetite for military conquest. Crete was conquered in 823,
Sardinia in 827 and Corsica in 850. Repeated raids were also launched into
southern Italy and the Rhone River region of France. After a struggle of
114 years, Sicily finally capitulated to the Moslems in 941. The conquerors
now were the Abbasid Dynasty, who displaced the Umayyads in 750.
Unlike the Umayyads, the Abbasids were less tolerant of non-Islamic
beliefs. Previously, subjugated Christians and Jews were generally left
alone to practice their beliefs, subject only to the payment of a special tax.
Now, conversion to Islam was more insisted upon and commonplace.
1
CCC # 2309.
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