Every human life is special, and people are more important than objects. We are all created in the image of God, and as such we should give each other the respect in life that we all deserve. When children are forced to commit violent crimes, they are deprived of the quality of life that
we all deserve, a quality of life where one isn't forced into any situation and can make their own decisions. Additionally, when children are forced to fight battles, they are obviously forced as well to take the lives of others. These experiences often scar children for life, and their actions subsequently deprive others of their lives.CST #2-Call to Family, Community, and Participation
The family is the fundamental unit in society and instrumental in the healthy psychological and emotional human growth. Furthermore, individuals have a responsibility to help their community and participate. Conflict groups take children from families to use in war - destroying the
sacred family unit. By removing children from the stable environment of the family, military groups damage the emotional development of children.CST #3-Rights and Responsibilities
Every human being is entitled to certain individual rights. Catholic tradition shows that these rights need to be protected in order to create safe and flourishing communities.
The essential right every person is entitled to is a right to life;
subsequent rights that follow deal with keeping human decency intact. With every child who is forced into combat their rights to life and decency aren’t fulfilled. These children are often forced to perform acts of atrocity, and to even be willing to die for the causes of others.CST #4- Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
To determine the relative well-being and happiness of a society, one should look to the state of the most poor and vulnerable in that society. Logically, in order to spread well-being throughout a community, a society should focus on helping these poor and vulnerable people, because their comfort in a community leads to the community’s improvement. Child soldiers and their families are often the poorest and most vulnerable in a society. Conflict groups recognize this weakness, and exploit it to kidnap thousands of children for combat purposes.
CST #5-The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
The availability of respectable work in often leads to an improvement of a particular society. Respectable work refers to jobs where the basic rights of workers are acknowledged and respected. Child soldiers are often recruited from the poorest families in a community. If these families could access respectable work, they could most likely set themselves up in better situations to avoid the influence of conflict groups.
CST #6-Solidarity
Every
human being, all of us, is essentially part of one giant family. Throughout our daily life we should strive to help others, our family, in any way we can, ignoring differences that stem from nationality, race, ethnicity, or economic standing. We should take this stance with child soldiers even though they may seem like children who we have no connection with; they are part of our human family, and deserve the same type of help and care that we extend to people that we do know.CST #7-Care for God’s Creation
Just as we are called to help the poor and vulnerable we are also called to help the animals and environment of our world, as they are God
’s creation. In many areas where child soldiers are recruited, families heavily rely on agriculture and their crops to sustain themselves. In order to create chaos and fear, conflict groups often target families’ crops or livestock to steal or harm. These actions are obviously wasteful, and disrespect God’s creation. The chaos and fear that result leads to easy manipulation of children to become soldiers, and only furthers violence and atrocities around the world.Works Cited
"USCCB - (SDWP) - Seven Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching." United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Web. 26 Mar. 2010.
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