New Details on Bin Laden Raid Raise More Questions

How should Catholics respond?

As U.S. officials give more details about Sunday's raid that left terrorist leader Osama bin Laden dead, a fundamental question has yet to be answered: was anyone in the bin Laden compound armed when the Navy SEALs conducted the assault?

P>GRAND RAPIDS, MI--As U.S. officials give more details of Sunday's raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, more questions arise about the choice to kill the terrorist leader rather than capture him alive.

A report posted on CNN.com leaves unanswered a fundamental question about the operation: was anyone in the bin Laden compound armed when the Navy SEALs conducted the assault?

According to CNN, the White House stated that "bin Laden was not armed during the raid, but he put up resistance when U.S. forces entered the compound."

While the term "firefight" has been used repeatedly in accounts of the raid-including reference to a woman who was wounded in "crossfire"-CNN also reports that "there were no armed guards around the compound, according to a U.S. official who is not authorized to speak on the record." CNN notes that "five of the approximately two dozen people in the compound were killed," leaving about 19 others who not only avoided death, but also did no harm to the SEALs.

All accounts so far indicate only the Navy SEALs as being armed in the compound, leaving U.S. officials to name who were the other combatants in the "firefight" and "crossfire."

Also yet to be answered is the nature of the unarmed bin Laden's resistance to the heavily armed Navy SEALs, and why it required a response with deadly force. Officials acknowledge that a woman who "rushed" the SEALs was shot in the leg but not killed, but that bin Laden was shot in the head and the chest.

That bin Laden was unarmed and there were no armed guards in the compound is certainly surprising, given that this structure was built to hide and protect perhaps the most wanted criminal in the world. Most likely the Navy SEALs and those who gave them their orders were expecting a firefight with guards and bin Laden himself, which could explain their gunfire. Yet answers need to be forthcoming from U.S. officials, not speculation by the public.

Catholics should be concerned with the answers to these questions in order to evaluate how we are to respond to the assault.

As was noted in the Catholic Online article "Osama bin Laden Is Dead. How Should a Catholic Respond?" some have applied the Church's teaching on the death penalty to this case. Although this was not a sentence and execution carried out through a court, the same principles may apply. In light of these new details, they certainly bear attention. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

"Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

"If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

"Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity 'are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.'" (CCC, 2267)

Further answers and explanations from U.S. officials will help everyone to sort out what happened in Pakistan on May 1

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James Penrice is a contributor to Catholic Online.

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