Tag Archives: war

An Open Letter to LifeSiteNews

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Dear LifeSiteNews, 

Thank you for the good and important work that you do. I hope you will today help your readers to recall that March 20 is the 17th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. 

One man, Mark Scibilia-Carver, has created a website and a Scroll of Remembrance, listing all Catholics (or at least those who have had Catholic funerals) who have died in these pre-emptive, unjust, immoral, ill-advised and unnecessary post 9-11 wars. 

www.TheCatholicCostofWar.org

I did an interview with Mark here: https://youtu.be/T1Ek86sMh_g

I understand the desire not to water down the meaning of “pro life” by trying to make it encompass every issue under the sun — I agree with that. But when it comes to people killing other people — especially in unjust, unnecessary, immoral, and pre-emptive wars — I think we can honestly call it a valid pro-life issue.

It is my opinion that the abortion pro-life cause is only hurt when Catholics turn a blind eye to other forms of unjust, systemic, white collar, corporate killing, refusing to speak about it in “conservative” circles, literally pretending that these wars do not exist. It’s a massive blindspot that undermines the pro-life cause. 

This war is the longest in our country’s history, with no end in sight. Just like the atomic bombs — dropped by Christians — were more effective in wiping out Japanese Christianity than hundreds of years of Christian persecution in that country, these wars have done more to wipe out Middle Eastern Christianity than persecution ever could. 

Let’s call to mind those men and women who died in these wars. Will you help? 

God bless.

Sincerely, 
Ellen Finnigan

I Need A Favor

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Here is the comment that I left on Bishop Barron’s talk on YouTube: “1917, War, and Faith.” If you have a second, please go to the video and click “like” on my comment. Hopefully that way, the comment will be more visible and more people will see it. It’s terrible that Bishop Barron isn’t sharing this sad truth with his listeners. (I wonder why.)

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Bishop Barron seems mystified as to how Christians could have gone and slaughtered each other in World War I. The answer is easy: Their religious leaders told them to. The U.S. Bishops of the time supported and endorsed the war, publicly. In April of 1917, Cardinal Gibbons wrote a letter to Woodrow Wilson, signed by all of the Archbishops of the United States:

“…now that war has been declared, WE BOW IN OBEDIENCE to the summons to do our part…Inspired by the holiest sentiments of truest patriotic fervor and zeal, we stand ready, we and all the flock committed to our keeping, TO COOPERATE IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE WITH OUR PRESIDENT AND OUR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT…” In November of that year, he wrote to Wilson: “Guided as we are by the sublime teachings of Christianity we have no other course open to us but that of OBEDIENCE and devotion to our country….we wish for our people to see, and WE ARE STRIVING TO HELP THEM TO REALIZE, that they OWE UNSWERVING LOYALTY to the rulers whom they have elected to office, and that in doing so they are not acting in a slavish manner, for obedience is not an act of servility we pay to man but AN ACT OF HOMAGE WE PAY TO GOD…”

I find it very hard to believe that Bishop Barron would not know this history and the complicity of the Catholic Church leadership in war. At least the American Bishops don’t encourage Christians to go slaughter people in war anymore. Instead, they coyly condone the country’s wars through 17 years of straight, complete and utter silence.

LETTER OF OUR ARCHBISHOP TO PRESIDENT WILSON http://www.bensalmon.org/uploads/8/2/5/7/82576010/archbishopsletter.pdf

LETTER WRITTEN TO PRESIDENT WILSON BY CARDINAL GIBBONS https://books.google.com/books?id=OpMwAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA9-PA5&lpg=RA9-PA5&dq=archbishop+gibbons+letter+president+wilson&source=bl&ots=wIhsc8_PiY&sig=ACfU3U0ZEbXjJJrYNswiCDa3mCrvexgR6A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjH1-PvlK_nAhWPVs0KHbx5D5UQ6AEwD3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=archbishop%20gibbons%20letter%20president%20wilson&f=false

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Wars of the Papal State

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In this week’s podcast, Episode 25, Fr. McCarthy and I discuss the article published a few weeks ago in America magazine called: “The Teaching of the Catholic Church is Clear: We Are Against War.”

Um, really?

There is much to say about that, but for starters, here is a list of wars waged by the papal state from 1563 – 1871.

Wars of the Papal State, until 1563 
Go to narrative history of the Papal State: 1447-1471 . 1471-1503 . 1503-1534 . 1534-1566 

1482-1484 War of Ferrara 
1485-1486  Florentine War of Pope Sixtus IV. 
1494-1495  Neapolitan War 1494-1495 
1499-1504 Franco-Aragonese War over Naples 
1508-1509 War of the League of Cambrai 
1510-1516 War of the Holy League 
1527 Sacco di Roma 
1556-1557  Carafa War, 1556-1557 

Wars of the Papal State 1563-1808 
Go to narrative history of the Papal State 1566-1590 . 1590-1618 . 1618-1660 . 1660-1700 . 1700-1730 . 1730-1758 . 1758-1789 . 1789-1799 . 1799-1809 

1571  Naval Battle of Lepanto (fending off the Ottoman Threat) 
1641-1644 War over Parma 
1660-1664 Franco-Papal War 
1707-1709 Austro-Papal War (War of Spanish Succession 1701-1714) 
1791  French occupation of Avignon and the Venaissin 
1792-1797  First War of the Coalition, parts of Papal State occupied by the French 
1797-1798 Revolution and French Occupation 
1798 Neapolitan Invasion of the Papal State 
1799-1802 Second War of the Coalition 
1808-1809  Franco-Italian annexation of the Papal State 

Wars of the Papal State 1808-1870 

Go to narrative history of the Papal State 1809-1815 . 1815-1830 . 1830-1849 . 1849-1860 . 1860-1871.

1831 Revolution 
1832-1839 Austrian Occupation of Bologna, French Occupation of Ancona 
Rebellion of Savigno/Imola (Legione Italica) 
1843 Austrian Occupation of Bologna, French Occupation of Ancona 
Rebellion of Savigno/Imola (Legione Italica) 
1845 Revolt of Rimini 
1848-1849 Revolution 
1860-1861 Garibaldi’s Expedition against Sicily 
1867 Invasion of Italian patriots 
1870-1871  Franco-German War 























Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

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Wow. I’m speechless after watching this trailer! I can’t believe a film about Gospel nonviolence will actually be on the big screen! This is what the world needs right now.

The extraordinary true story of conscientious objector Desmond Doss who, in Okinawa during the bloodiest battle of WWII, saved 75 men without firing a gun. Believing that the War was just but killing was nevertheless wrong, he was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon. As an army medic Doss single-handedly evacuated the wounded near enemy lines, braved fire while tending to soldiers and was wounded by a grenade and hit by snipers. He was the first conscientious objector to ever win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

 

Oh, and as long as I’m on the topic of Mel Gibson, I simply must recommend a short story (well, it’s written like a screenplay but meant to be read as a story) called Surfing With Mel, written by the insanely talented Matthew Lickona. Do you have complicated feelings about Mel Gibson? Read this. It has so much heart and so much compassion at once, without fawning, promoting, or excusing.

mel

 

On April 11, 2012, TheWrap.com published a private letter from screenwriter Joe Eszterhas to director Mel Gibson. The letter chronicled, in alarming detail, their disastrous attempt to collaborate on a film version of the Biblical Book of Maccabees. The media flare-up that followed focused on Eszterhas’ characterization of Gibson as an angry, Jew-hating sociopath, but largely ignored the spiritual crisis at the story’s heart. Using the letter as a map, Surfing with Mel sets out to find some meaning within the madness, and winds up outlining a darkly satirical and deeply profane portrait of two men at war with each other, with their pasts, and with God.

About the Korrektiv Press series Lives of Famous Catholics: Writing in his journal about the celebrities of his day, the author John Cheever observed that “we have a hierarchy of demigods and heroes; they are a vital part of our lives and they should be a vital part of our literature.” We agree, which is why the Lives of Famous Catholics series seeks to explore the life of faith by the light of the famous.