Many conservative Catholics, even some who are politicians, understand the full implications of the “crime against peace” which is the subject of my previous post.
Here’s what Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina had to say last year. According to Wikipedia and The American Conservative, Jones is a Baptist convert to Roman Catholicism.
“Congress will not hold anyone to blame, Lyndon Johnson’s probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War, and he probably needs to move over for Dick Cheney,”
Here’s a video clip (starting at the 32 minute mark). It’s worth listening for about 4 minutes to get the whole context for this quote.
What prompted me to write this post was David Stockman’s great article yesterday which describes how Representative Jones survived an effort by the Neocons to defeat him Tuesday in the Republican primary.
It has been said that the Iraq War sent many people on a journey. I know that was true for me as it was true for Walter Jones. Out of evil God can bring forth good.
In 2006, I attended a protest against Condoleezza Rice’s appearance as a commencement speaker at Boston College at the height of the Iraq War. BC, allegedly a Catholic college, honored her even though Pope John Paul II (now Saint John Paul II) and the Vatican he headed had explicitly condemned the invasion and war she helped to plan. Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran said it would be a “crime against peace.”
“This crime against the peace was a brand new charge, never before seen in international law. American prosecutors, led by Justice Jackson, had a more sweeping view of justice in mind. They saw the supreme crime at Nuremberg not in any specific act of Nazi mass killing, nor in the construction of the death camps like Auschwitz. For American prosecutors, the supreme crime was a completely new criminal charge: waging aggressive war, or the crime against peace.”
There is an epidemic of immaturity, rootlessness and lack of commitment among young men today in America. One obvious Catholic manifestation of this condition is the remarkable absence of young males at Mass or at any Church functions.
Unfortunately these men are often attracted to the military to get some sense of purpose in their lives. They make good cannon fodder.
What is the antidote to American militarism which is so dangerous and seductive and attracts so many young men, particularly Catholic men? They should reject service in the armed forces of the neo-pagan American empire. Instead they should be Soldiers of Christ.
The above video is from the 2012 Saint Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston. It shows the famous float of Saint Patrick, followed by the Immaculate Heart of Mary School Band followed by a tank.
This year, as usual, the parade was surrounded by controversy. The issue: should gays march in the parade as an organized unit and openly acknowledge their sexual orientation with banners, signs, t-shirts, etc.? It was a little more heated than usual, because we have a new mayor in Boston and he tried to broker a deal between Mass Equality (a gay rights group) and the South Boston Allied War Veterans, the group which organizes the parade.
It is a complicated story, but basically, for a short time, there was an apparent agreement to allow gay veterans to march. The principal from the Catholic school featured in the above video declined to let his school participate with their band and float if the gays marched. The parade organizers said they had been misled by Mass Equality and cancelled the deal. The gays did not march. As usual, almost all politicians, including the mayor, boycotted the parade, and this year, the Boston Beer Company (maker of Sam Adams), declined to participate in the parade and took the side of the mayor.
“We are tough proud South Bostonians, with deep scars from controversy that dates back decades. Saint Patrick is the Patron Saint of our Irish. We love our parade. This parade is a chance for all to join together and celebrate the love of friends, family, and the faith of our community.”
In 1995 the vets won a Supreme Court decision that they have the right to exclude groups from their parade. They may have won a battle but they are losing the war. In Massachusetts gay marriage has been legal for years and the Boston Archdiocese had to end its charitable adoption services as a result. The US military, with the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” has now been fully conformed to the American elite’s vision of gay rights. How can the Southie vets argue that gays should be excluded when a Brigadier General in the U.S. army is a married lesbian and an Okinawan Air Base hosts a drag show fundraiser for a group that advocates the military LGBT cause?
But more importantly, gay rights aside, the American military as an institution is increasingly incompatible with Catholic values. You know the story: unjust wars of aggression (as in Iraq), torture, remote controlled assassination drones, perpetual undeclared war on terror around the globe, an epidemic of suicide. Most recently there is the push for “women in combat.” What could be more anti-Catholic than women in combat?
Those proud South Boston men may have won in the Supreme Court, but they will lose in the court of public opinion if they continue to hold a semi-secular parade that celebrates militarism. The best strategy would be to make the parade more exclusive of secular values and more inclusive of Catholic groups and the values of the Catholic Church, which is after all the most diverse and inclusive institution on the planet. Make it officially a Catholic parade to celebrate a Catholic saint and the heritage of Irish American Catholics. Lose the militarism, the tanks, and the guns. Have more Catholic Schools, marchers from prolife groups, and recruit faithful Catholic politicians (if you can find any) and public figures. Seek sponsorship from Catholic businessmen. Maybe there can be participation by Courage, the Catholic apostolate that ministers to folks with same sex attraction. Include workers from Catholic hospitals and charities.
It’s not my job to plan the parade but you get the idea. Peace, family values and solidarity with the poor as opposed to celebration of war and incessant bickering and vitriol over culture war issues that detract from the mission of the Church. The debate will end once it is a real Catholic parade. Promotion of gay marriage is no more acceptable in a Catholic parade than promotion of artificial birth control or Playboy magazine. Even Mayor Walsh will understand that.
The parade must change in order to survive. Massachusetts is the most Catholic state in the country. We can do better.
Note: I mention the company that makes Sam Adams beer, because, in 2002, they were involved in a notorious and depraved incident of what can only be termed “live radio pornography.” Ironically and tragically, there was a connection to St. Patrick back then too. I am not sure how this company ever became involved with the parade. Let’s pray those responsible for the 2002 scandal have repented, but if Boston Beer won’t support the new parade, here’s their replacement:
Laurence Vance has many excellent articles and blog posts at lewrockwell.com on why Christians should not join the military. Here is a quote he posted from a Navy officer who wrote to a young man who asked for advice:
“I would strongly discourage any good man from joining the military. In the Navy, particularly, it is extremely difficult to remain faithful to Christ’s teachings. You live day in and day out in the company to immoral people. Drunkenness is extremely common, as is theft, pornography, fornication, and adultery. Brothels in foreign ports make their wages for the year when American ships arrive. The Navy is also extremely damaging to family life. 6-month deployments as well as numerous other underway periods steal a man’s time from his loved ones. Even while in port, 12 hour work days are the norm. I missed about 9 months of my first born daughter’s first year because I was out to sea. The stress and strain that puts on a spouse is, in my opinion, irresponsible of a husband. Please realize that joining the military is not serving a ‘greater good.’ … It will jeopardize your principles, your marriage, your children, your life, and likely your soul.”
Two Catholic guys, Tom Woods and Bill Kauffman, discuss the “soul-corroding effect of military empire.” It’s time for Catholics to realize that defense of family values means we must oppose not only Planned Parenthood, but also the U.S. warfare state and its imperial armed forces.
If you’re pressed for time, I suggest you start the show at the 18 minute mark.
Note: Tom laments that Bill’s famous 2008 Ron Paul speech is no longer available on the internet. But ask and you shall receive. Someone has put it up again on C-SPAN.
“There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else.” Teddy Roosevelt
Here’s a thought-provoking article by Boston University Professor Andrew Bacevich:
I have heard the professor speak a couple times. I have read one of his books and always read his articles when I find them. He’s a retired Army officer, a Vietnam vet. He doesn’t fit into any preconceived political category and he always challenges his readers. He’s also a Catholic who’s suffered a terrible personal tragedy as a result of war.
In his article, Bacevich writes about the elite consensus that dominates Washington in spite of apparent Democratic vs. Republican sparring and then he makes this observation:
“Are the troops in Afghanistan fighting for our freedom? If so, the package of things they fight for includes the prerogative of dispatching US forces to wherever it pleases Washington to send them, along with no-fault divorce, abortion on demand, gay marriage, and an economic system that manifestly privileges the interests of the affluent at the expense of those hard-pressed to make ends meet.”
There you have it — a succinct description of the three pillars of the decaying edifice that I think we ought to call “Americanism.” Militarism and perpetual war, sexual license promoted as freedom, and the “greed is good”/consumerist mentality. All available for export.
Pretty grim situation, isn’t it? But there is hope in the world. It’s called the Catholic Church, the only force on earth which stands in opposition to all aspects of this gathering darkness. More precisely I’m talking about the teachings and traditional morality of the Church which are timeless and have survived unchanged in spite of the failure of most Catholics (myself included) to live up to those standards.
It’s time for a restoration of the Catholic Faith in America. We must reject Washington’s “tacit consensus” and oppose it with Catholic solidarity. But we can’t pick and choose what aspects of the Faith we adhere to, based on media-defined categories of liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat. Teddy Roosevelt will turn over in his grave, but we have to be 100% Catholic. All Catholic all the time.
We have to defeat Americanism in order to save America. Let’s make that one of our jobs as Catholics. Let’s start a conversation about how to go about it.
one of my photos taken at the British War Museum in 2008
As the 100 year anniversary of the First World War approaches, the Guardian has a fascinating slideshow on “Britain’s 100 years of conflict.” It takes a while to get through it, but it’s well worth viewing. Everyone will draw their own lessons from it, but here are some items that struck me:
–British forces had over 900,000 dead or missing in WWI as compared to 383,000 in WWII.
–Churchill famously said (in 1919) that he was “strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.”
–The Brits sent troops to help the French against Vietnamese communists and nationalists in Indochina after WWII. “As fighting with Viet-Minh forces quickly escalated, Japanese prisoners were rearmed, placed under British command and compelled to join the conflict.”
–In the war to reclaim the Dutch East Indies (indonesia), “there were mutinies among British troops who were sickened by the ferocity of their Dutch allies. In February 1946, British and Indian troops threatened to turn on the Dutch if the slaughter of civilians continued.”
–We learn that 4 million people died in the Korean war but the entry on the 2003 Iraq war does not list total casualties. Maybe that’s because the Iraq war is not really over yet?
Question for British and American Catholics:
How does one apply the “just war” teaching if you are a citizen of an empire which is engaged in nearly a constant state of warfare throughout the globe?
