by John Roach

About the author: John Roach is the archbishop of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, and is chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ International Policy Committee.

The world has watched with increasing horror as war has brought untold human suffering to the peoples of the Balkans. We and many others have implored the international community to act with greater resolve to stop the slaughter of innocents, to provide aid to millions of suffering people and to help bring about a lasting political solution to this fratricidal war and prevent its spread to other parts of the region.

As our government and the international community appear to be moving closer to making a decision to intervene militarily, I wanted to share with you what we consider to be the critical moral issues...