Scottish Catholic Observer

Ahead of today’s vote in the House of Commons on Syria, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, has signalled support for air strikes against the Islamic State as long as it is part of a wider strategy for peace.

Cardinal Nichols (above) said he had come to the conclusion that a ‘proportionate military intervention’ will be required to protect innocent people from ‘grave harm.’

MPS are due to vote today on Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposals to extend the bombing of the Islamic State from Iraq to Syria.

In a short statement issued by the Catholic Church, the cardinal said: “Effective action is necessary to stop the grave harm being inflicted by ISIS on civilians.”

“While indiscriminate violence is never justifiable, specific use of force to protect the vulnerable is defensible, if it is combined with sustained diplomatic and humanitarian efforts,” he added. “As Pope Francis has said: Where there is unjust aggression, it is licit to stop the aggressor.”

The cardinal also spoke today of meeting ‘a number of Iraqi refugees and those who are generously sheltering them’ in April of this year, during a visit to the country.

“In conversation, I came to the conclusion that there are four necessary steps that are required to be taken in Iraq and Syria for refugees and displaced people to return home,” he said.

“The first is to stop ISIS along with those groups who perpetrate indiscriminate violence and that will require a proportionate military intervention; the second will be to make villages and towns habitable through clearing land mines and other IEDs along with the necessary reconstruction of houses and infrastructure; the third will be to re-establish the rule of law and finally to re-establish trust between the different peoples and faiths. This will take time and requires a long-term commitment to all whose home is in the region and seek to live in peace.”

This follows a statement last month in which the cardinal said that the use of force may be defensible in intervention towards the ISIS, if ‘precise’ and not “indiscriminate.’

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that effective action is called for to stop the actions and the activities of ISIS… Specific use of weapons in a defensive mode is defensible,” he said.

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