The three purposes of the Second Vatican Council were the renewal of the church, the reconciliation of the churches and the transformation of the world by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The bishops of the Council, inspired by the leadership of Blessed John XXIII, were convinced that restating the fundamental purpose and mission of the church would allow the Holy Spirit to purify and renew us as Catholics, and bring new vitality to the ecumenical quest for the unity of faith clearly desired by God. If unified into a single voice and witness, we could bring a more effective voice to the world within which we live.

As a result of that logic, and empowered by the results already experienced during the four years of the Council’s deliberations, the bishops proclaimed on Dec. 7, 1965, a final stirring “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” (Gaudium et spes).

The last section of that historic document lists five problems of special urgency: 1) fostering the nobility of marriage and the family, 2) the proper development of culture, 3) socio-economic life, 4) the life of the political community, and finally 5) the fostering of peace and the promotion of a community or nations.

Although everyone of these pastoral and moral challenges remain singularly crucial today, even after almost 40 years, it is the final sad area of human life which I lift up for reflection in this column.

The Second World War ended with the horrific unleashing of nuclear energy upon the citizens of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 (the Feast of the Transfiguration), and on a similar group of innocent people in Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1965. As a pilgrim I have visited both sites and stood mute at these places of such utter devastation and suffering. No one can do so and remain unchanged.

Though debated over the years, the vast majority of Catholic theologians have concluded that the use by the United States of those nuclear bombs was morally wrong, no matter what the intention may have been. The end never justifies the means. In particular, these thoughtful men and women pondered the moral tradition of the church and pointed out the undifferentiated killing of countless innocent non military combatants and the fact that the act itself was a final demonstration of power not needed to bring the conflict to an end.

During the past few days we have paused to commemorate the 40th anniversary of those two events. As people of faith we may not allow them to fade into a mere cloud of patriotism. They remain challenges to American moral integrity and probably reasons for national repentance. The end never justifies the means.

Since then every part of the globe has known the horror of wars and the pleas for peace on the part of innocent children.

The Council fathers listed so many aspects of war as it came to be experienced: its horror and perversity, the multiplication of scientific weapons, the indiscriminate destruction of populations, the almost total and reciprocal slaughter of humanity, the widespread natural devastation and its deadly aftereffects. They solemnly concluded that “all these considerations compel us to undertake an evaluation of war with an entirely new attitude” (paragraph 80). This remains true for us as Catholics and Christians, no matter what our political affiliations may be.

Tragically our newspapers and television reports present a daily reminder of the deadly nature of war, and in particular the terror of the current war in Iraq for military combatants, their families and innocent Iraqi citizens alike. The lethal count of our military casualties increases daily, and the heartache for families who mourn the deaths of their most promising loved ones can’t even begin to be calculated.

The very fact that Pentagon officials admit that they do not keep count of Iraqi casualties suggests to many observers that we cannot bear facing the full impact of the human damage being caused.

This situation is further complicated by the noble purposes of so many of the men and women who have been ripped from their families and mobilized for that war effort so far from home. I regularly pray at Eucharist for all those who labor to achieve peace in the world and for those who suffer so terribly because of its absence.

As Catholics we simply cannot allow ourselves to become accustomed to the daily brutality of this war or any other military conflict in our world today. Nor can we allow ourselves to forget that the highest levels of our universal Catholic Church concluded that the decision of the United States to go to war in Iraq was morally indefensible. That suggests that this war itself is wrong. Since that time even greater moral clarity on this question seems to have been provided by the lack of sufficient cause, the unnecessary harm to innocent people and preference for military rather than diplomatic solutions.

Evil is real and terrorism is a dreadful reality in our world. Virtually all religious traditions across the globe, including our best Islamic leaders, are increasingly distancing themselves from terrorism in any form. Personally, I grow more and more convinced that any declaration of “war” against that human pathology is misguided when the best “instruments” for its removal from the globe should rather be education and economic development.

This is a time for the aims of the Second Vatican Council to find fresh expression and better results. As Pope John Paul II often stated, the best defense against bad teaching is good teaching. At the beginning of a new academic year our teachers, parents and catechists must consider forging a different path for our children and youth. The future of the world depends on it.