Monthly Archives: October 2013

Pope Francis to the International Meeting For Peace | ZENIT

Leave a reply

In a special way we all say forcefully, continually, that there can be no religious justification for violence, in whatever way it manifests itself. As Pope Benedict XVI stressed two years ago, on the 25th anniversary of the Assisi meeting, we must do away with every form of religiously motivated violence, and watch together so that the world will not fall prey to that violence contained in every project of civilization that is based on “no” to God.

Pope Francis’ Address to the Participants International Meeting For Peace by the Sant’Egidio Community | ZENIT – The World Seen From Rome.

Civilians, “Militants”, Collateral Damage — whatever

Leave a reply

This is a quick throwback to a very important article Glenn Greenwald wrote a few years ago about Obama’s policy to call every person killed by drones a “militant” and the media’s willingness to go along. I haven’t been able to see the original article at Salon, perhaps because I need a subscription, but this blog gives a good rundown of the content.

Virtually every time the U.S. fires a missile from a drone and ends the lives of Muslims, American media outlets dutifully trumpet in headlines that the dead were ”militants” – even though those media outlets literally do not have the slightest idea of who was actually killed. They simply cite always-unnamed “officials” claiming that the dead were “militants.” It’s the most obvious and inexcusable form of rank propaganda: media outlets continuously propagating a vital claim without having the slightest idea if it’s true.

U.S. Labels ALL Young Men In Battle Zones As “Militants” … And American Soil Is Now Considered a Battle Zone | Washington’s Blog.

 

Alliance with military training contradictory

Leave a reply

This is an excellent article by Daniel C. McGuire, professor of moral theology at Marquette University:

At Marquette University, there are two contradictory schools of thought on war and both are — confusingly — taught to our students. One is based on the Judeo-Christian, Catholic, Jesuit moral tradition, and it is encapsulated in what is called “the Catholic just war theory.” That theory puts the burden of proof on the warrior, not on the conscientious objector…The other school of thought taught at Marquette is called the ROTC. ROTC does not accept or include in its independent curriculum the “Catholic just war theory,” which defends the right of “selective conscientious objection to particular wars” for soldiers. Neither does its curriculum require course work on the biblical teaching of peace-making.

via Marquette and ROTC: Alliance with military training is contradictory, July 23, 2013

St. Nicetius Called Out Public Officials

Leave a reply

October 1 is the Feast Day of St. Nicetius (513-566). According to Catholic.org, Nicetius was known for calling out public officials, which is why I’m combining this post with one about the protests happening at CUNY against David Patraeus. This is the kind of thing Nicetius would do:

While journeying to Trier to be consecrated, Nicetius did not hesitate to condemn the royal officials accompanying him when one evening these men released their horses into the wheat fields of the local peasants, ruining their crops. In response to Nicetius’ threat to excommunicate the perpetrators, the officers laughed at him, but he continued: “The king has drawn me, a poor abbot, from my quiet cloister, to set me over this people, and by God’s grace I will do my duty by them and protect them from wrong and robbery.” Nicetius then went after the horses himself to drive them out of the peasants’ fields. As bishop of Trier, Nicetius manifested great apostolic courage…in denouncing from the pulpit public officials guilty of grave evils. For a time he suffered banishment for condemning the crimes of King Clotaire I.

Wow. So I stumbled upon some information today about the protests happening against David Petraeus, who was originally going to be paid $200,000 to teach a three-hour seminar there once a week. Turns out he is not very welcome.

…a great many CUNY students’ families come from countries directly targeted by the death squads, military coups, drones, spying and mass bombing organized by the likes of Petraeus, “his man Steele,” and the U.S. military as a whole, now under the command of Obama who is pushing to open a new war front, this time in Syria.

via Interview: Students, Faculty Protest Presence of David Petraeus at CUNY Honors College | The Dissenter.

Here is a video of Petraeus walking away from CUNY, followed by angry protesters. What would St. Nicetius say?