War crimes are a serious matter for Catholics

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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.

A “Crime Against Peace” at BC then, at Rutgers now

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Congratulations to the Rutgers and Minnesota students who clearly understand that “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

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.”

Vatican Strongly Opposes Iraq War

“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.”

— from “The Ghosts of Nuremberg” by Michael Gaddy

25th Anniversary

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“I don’t know that the United States learned anything from it.” Oliver Stone speaking recently on the Vietnam War at Ebertfest.

Here’s one we can’t forget on our People page, whenever we get around to finally making it: Ron Kovic, author of Born on the Fourth of July.

Credit this photo: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

Credit this photo: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

Mr. Kovic contributed this letter for the American people to the MY HERO website on Sept. 14, 2001.

Dear Friends,

My heart and soul weeps with everyone in America right now. I was deeply saddened by the terrible tragedy that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. I didn’t sleep much again last night, as it’s been for me, and I’m sure so many others since Tuesday. I wonder if we will ever sleep “normally” again? I have thought about it a lot and I am deeply disheartened by the blind patriotism, hatred and desire for revenge that I see growing more and more in this country each day. Resorting to violence and warfare is a great mistake. The painful anguish resulting from this senseless act of violence stirs in all of us a desire for swift retribution. I strongly believe that to move in this direction will lead us into a terrible and disastrous war which we, as a people and a nation, may never recover from. It is a dark and dangerous time in America, and I, in good conscience, will never support such an act of madness! We seem to have learned nothing from Vietnam, and those of us who have come to understand through great suffering the awful waste and deep immorality of war, are not being listened to. Those of us who have found that love and forgiveness are more powerful than hatred are not being heard. We remain invisible, isolated and alone, voices in the wilderness in a country that has truly gone mad. I encourage all of you to raise your voices on behalf of peace and non-violence everywhere. I love this country so much that I don’t want to see it go through the senselessness and agony of war ever again.

With love and a sincere hope for peace!

Ron Kovic

Ron Kovic at an anti-war rally in Los Angeles, California on October 12, 2007.

Ron Kovic at an anti-war rally in Los Angeles, California on October 12, 2007.

 

The Greatest Adventure of All Time

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

Lenten Reflection 5: Untaught Christian History

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Just before a battle with the Gauls at Borbetomagus, Saint Martin of Tours (316-397), then a military officer, determined that his faith in Christ prohibited him from fighting, saying, “I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight.” He was charged with cowardice and jailed. In response to the charge, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front of the troops.

This ten-minute video talk is the fifth part in a series of Lenten reflections by Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy.

Lenten Reflection 4: Just War

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CHRISTIAN UNJUST/JUST WAR MORAL THEORY

“The first weapon of war is the lie. The first casualty of war is the truth. These two universally known and historically validated facts are truths that Christian Just War theory, Christian Just Warists, and Christian Just War Churches are adamantly and chronically culpably blind to. And this, despite the verifiable fact that this head-inthe-sand moral posture has resulted in and is resulting in Christians destroying tens of millions of human beings and inflicting intolerable human suffering on tens of millions of others by their ostrich-based Just War morality. Morally culpable self-deception is refusing to look because I know I won’t see what I want to see.” Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
This ten-minute video talk is the fourth part in a series of Lenten reflections by Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy.
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Lenten Reflection 3: Culpable Conscience

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“The effort one is obliged to make in order to acquire moral certainty that an action is morally permissible is to be measured by the importance of the action itself and the consequences which can be reasonably anticipated. If the life of a neighbor is liable to be imperiled by actions of ours, we must choose the safest course of action so as to avoid this evil effect. War with its dire consequences can never be waged on the grounds of probable right.” —Rev. Bernard Haring, C.SS.R., THE LAW OF CHRIST, Vol I, Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur (1960)

Lenten Reflection 3: Culpable Conscience

Battlefields to Farmfields

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Good for these veterans. From the website groundoperations.net:

Our warriors are coming home from battle. They face a daunting transition back to civilian life, marked by unemployment, prescription drug addiction and astronomical suicide rates. They need a new mission.  Simultaneously, we are losing half of American farmers to retirement and the USDA is calling for one million new farmers to fill the gap.  Agriculture’s problem is the veterans’ solution. 

“Ground Operations: Battlefields to Farmfields” champions combat vets who are rebuilding their own lives as organic farmers & ranchers and revitalizing their communities with access to local, affordable, fresh, healthy food. These heroes blow the lid off stereotypes and you’ll be rooting for them all the way to your farmers market.

America needs a million new farmers. Veterans want the job!