Hero of War
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St. Martin of Tours, Nov. 11
From The Sign of Peace:
“Anyone whose shadow has darkened the door of a chapel ought to know the story of Saint Martin of Tours, whose feast the Church celebrates every November 11. Indeed, the life of this fourth century saint figures into the origin for the very word chapel and is an inspiration for what happens there. The story goes like this…
As a soldier in the Roman Empire, Martin was riding his horse in military exercises one cold winter day when he passed a shivering beggar. His conscience was stung, so he stopped to tend to the man. He dismounted the horse, took off his heavy military cape (called in Latin a cappa) and used his sword to cut a blanket-sized half to cover the man. That same night, he saw the beggar in a dream. Warmed by the cape he had been given, the beggar looked at Martin and, with the face and voice of Jesus Christ, thanked him.
After this rite of initiation into discipleship, Martin knew that all his weapons and all his armor must be turned over to Christ. He immediately sought baptism and discharge from the Roman army. In explaining his stance as a conscientious objector, Martin spoke the same words used by a soldier-martyr forty years earlier, Marcellus of Tangiers. Martin declared, “I am a soldier of Jesus Christ; it is not permissible for me to fight.” Once baptized, he was ordained a priest, then a bishop, and was revered for his holiness throughout his life.
When Martin of Tours died, people acclaimed him a saint and raised up devotion to him. As the principal act of their devotion, the faithful obtained half of the famous cappa, the half that Martin kept, enshrined it in a tent, and prayed there with it. The tent that held the cappa was called the capella, which became the Latin word for chapel…
Why (The King of Love is Dead)
U.S. interventions must end
Another call for repentance by American Catholic foreign policy expert William Pfaff:
“I make the following argument: The United States must understand that a grave crisis of Islamic civilization is overtaking the Middle East, which can only be resolved by the Muslims themselves. The United States bears a terrible responsibility for having created this crisis with its (and Israel’s and the Europeans’) military and political interventions since 1948. Nothing can be done by the West that will solve this crisis in our generation. We must withdraw, and observe this tragedy with pity — and repentance for what we have so arrogantly and casually done.”
Where are the American Bishops? Has a single one pointed out the evil nature of the U.S government’s role in all this and urged American Catholics to avoid complicity?
Throwback Thursday
To Sell a War (1992)
After the first Gulf War ended, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced an Emmy award-winning TV documentary on the PR campaign titled “To Sell a War.”
Fallujah Babies
Came across this important blog today about the babies being born in Fallujah, and thinking about the bombs we continue to send into Iraq.
Justice for the Babies of Fallujah
Ten Years Later, US Has Left Iraq with Mass Displacement, and Epidemic of Birth Defects, Cancers
Hero, Speaking Out
Dr. Udo Ulfkotte speaks from personal experience on how the CIA has created methods of soft control that are every bit as anti-American as would be outright censorship. They may even be more devastating than harder control.
America must repent, and Catholics should lead the way.
Some Catholics are urging the U.S. government to go all out to prevent “genocide” in the Middle East and to crush the Islamic State with military force. They are making a serious mistake. Catholics need to debate among themselves and reflect on this crisis, not blindly follow the lead of the same authorities who bear a huge responsibility for creating this disaster in the first place.
Here is a new editorial from the New Oxford Review which can help us to think about this terrifying situation in a responsible manner:
The Blood Crying Out from the Ground
Please consider these important points from the article:
“Yes, we Westerners are struggling with a case of war fatigue. But averting our eyes and covering our ears won’t alter the fact that we bear direct responsibility for the sufferings currently being visited upon the Iraqi people — including the very vulnerable Iraqi Christians.”
“Rather, the Christian comes as a sacrifice, prepared to make a holocaust of himself in martyrdom, following the example of James Foley. It is easy to demand that others fight our wars for us. The harder, more necessary task is to stand up in the fray and call for peace.”
“As we grapple with how best to respond, we would do well to reflect on our role in creating the crisis currently afflicting Iraq. It is time we as a nation put on sackcloth and sat in ashes, time we fasted and prayed, beat our breasts and cried out to our Lord and our fellowman for forgiveness, and resolved never to repeat our errors.”