The first is the problem of distance, and the second is Americanism. Why are Catholics divided? The underlying reasons for American support of the atomic bomb are surely varied, but two reasons merit consideration because of their power to obscure our moral reasoning. Yet every pope since the event, the Second Vatican Council, hundreds of bishops, and scores of distinguished theologians, apologists, and preachers have condemned it, and the Catechism is clear about the matter. Catholics today approve of President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You do find fellow Catholics opposed to the bombing, but perhaps as many as half of U.S. “We owed ’em for Pearl Harbor.” “Do you know what the Japanese did in Nanking?” “My Great-Uncle Henry was on a troop ship bound for the land invasion of Japan,” a man argues.
“What about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945?” (If there is no beer or roast pig at your parish picnic, you need to find a new parish.) The conversation lags for a moment, but because you enjoy some good verbal sparring you know just how to get it going: You ask a question. There you are, beer in hand, watching the pig turn on its spit at the parish picnic.
