Question: What does the Church think about war and self defense, like if u shot someone b/c u thought they were gonna shoot you?

The answer to this question has to do with the intention or will of the individual. Let's use this scenario: You own a home, have a family and own a gun for protection. Someone breaks into your house and you get up, get your gun and without any warning and with deliberate attempt to kill them, you shoot them in the head and they die. Or, in the same situation, you get your gun and call from the darkness of the hallway, " I have a gun and will use it if you don't get out. The police have been called and are on the way". At this point either the criminal comes toward you with a knife or a shot is fired in your direction, you can do whatever it takes to stop him from hurting your self and your family. Now, in this process of stopping him, you may have to kill him. But your intention is not to kill him, it is only to stop him from hurting you. See the difference? In the first scenario, your intention is to deliberately kill someone, in the second, your intention is to stop them from killing you.

In a war it gets more complicated, but once again, you may have to kill someone to protect yourself, or your fellow soldiers, or your country, but you shouldn't be happy about it. You should also try hard to guard your heart in these cases from becoming so angry that you desire killing someone. According to the Bible and the Catechism, if you are so angry with someone that you desire to kill them (or even have them seriously hurt), then you have committed a mortal sin (CCC #2302). In our War Against Terror, our country is on a mission to protect our citizens from people trying to deliberately kill us all out of hate. Our government has the right and obligation to protect us from these attacks. The goal here should not be to kill all of the terrorists, the goal is to stop them and to protect ourselves. For this to happen, some may have to die. This should not make us happy. It is tremendously sad that in this modern era, we still have to resort to violence in order to solve our problems.

In Matt. 5: 44-45, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is complicate din war, where you may have to kill someone in self-defense. What is important is what is in your heart as you have to do so: sadness and reluctance at the thought of having had to kill another human being, or glee and joy because you killed an enemy?

Please take some time to pray today for peace in our world, so that there would be no need for war or killing, even for self-defense.