The Black Madonna

How can we Catholics fight the War on Terror?

The Holy Father is looking for ways.

Bejeweled2 crach

By now you must have heard that Benedict "insulted Islam". But you probably haven't heard anyone ask why he did, nevermind gotten an answer to that question. Here's one:

I repeat the question I posed yesterday: what did the Pope intend to achieve by saying what he said? Tucked away in Jon Meacham’s predictable isn’t-there-enough-religious-anger critique for Newsweek lies this passage:

[W]hy did Benedict quote the emperor in the first place? The most likely answer is that, no matter what the Vatican says now, the pope believes in having what the Catholic theologian and papal biographer George Weigel calls “a hard-headed conversation” about the role of faith in the life of the world. “He knew exactly what he was doing,” says Weigel. “He is saying that irrational violence is displeasing to God. The question Benedict is putting on the table is: ‘Does a significant part of Islam have the capacity to be self-critical?’”

Precisely. And in choosing to do so in such blunt terms, he’s injected himself into the central cultural conflict of the age. For this week, at least, the papacy is relevant to non-Catholics (and many Catholics, too) in ways it hasn’t been in years. He’s risking life and limb, but it’s a brilliant political maneuver.

Remember that our dear Father Ratzinger was a theologian before he became the Vicar of Christ. And so while it is very possible for him to take the role of the pastoral shepherd and spiritual advisor (roles so preferred by John Paul the Great, many of us may have forgotten that's not always what a pope is about), Benedict is probably quite a bit more proficient in identifying the temporal needs of the physical church and her people right now.

John Paul - Great though he was - was no longer prepared to arm the Church to defend herself. The former anti-Nazi Polish partisan had guided us to the end of the Cold War, and upon the triumph of Our Lady of Victory, had turned his - and our - reflections inward. The champion of peace through strength began preaching the gospel of the strength of inner peace.

Benedict is not burdened by 25 years of the papacy growing to envelop him. He saw the devastation of 9/11, the bloody conflicts perpetuating the War on Terror, and the hopeful message of freedom offered by the President in his second inaugural as a member of the curia and not as a pontiff. He has watched as Islamic radicals have blown up mosques and burned churches. He may be willing to risk martyrdom, but may not be fond of the idea of allowing Islamofascism to establish an empire through which it can oppress - and more importantly, defile - the entire Church. And in order for him to justify the offering to Caesar what belongs to him, he has to clearly establish the credentials of the enemy as enemy of the whole Church and the freedom-loving States entrusted with the defense of Her people.

I suspect this is just a beginning.

UPDATES: Kathy is all over the story. (scroll back for earlier posts)

Rod Dreher takes on the Left, and it's sometimes non-reaction, sometimes anti-Catholic response.

Fr. Raymond J. de Souza defends the Holy Father.

A prayer for America

At the end of Mass today, the organist seemed like she didn't want to stop playing after the second verse of the recessional, even though the celebrant and the rest of the altar servers had gotten to the back of the church already. As I sang another stanza of the popular hymn, I choked up, guessing why she was so insistant we finish with the third verse.

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

Even if the war in Iraq didn't qualify as Just War (something I don't think can be determined with certitude), the continued presence of American troops in the country, defending her people from insurgent Ba'athists and foreign terrorists, is clearly an act of compassion and mercy at least as important as drawing out and eliminating the Islamofascist enemy we face and demoralizing his supporters.

Every death of one of our troops truly proves him a hero in liberating strife. The nobleness of this sacrifice will be proven in time, but it will all be for naught if we don't repel the naysayers and doombringers attempting to invalidate the successes and reverse the gains by encouraging the enemy to continue the conflict.

We must remind the Christians among those who waver in the face of the mounting losses that every death now is a martyrdom. For even those in Iraq who don't believe in helping the Iraqis (we should), even those who don't believe they are protecting America (they are), are staying and fighting to defend their brothers in arms.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. - John 15:13

We must stay in the fight, stand true to our principles, and stand up for our friends. We must not lose heart now - as Jan Freeman tells us, when the late Ray Charles sang these words, America was already blessed.

God done shed his grace on thee
He crowned thy good, yes he did, with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

Sing it, Brother Ray.

Noncombatant in a War Zone

My diocesan newspaper's online site interviewed a military chaplain who is also one of our diocesan priests. The comments of Lt. Colonel Robert Cannon are inspirational and heartwarming, sounding the call of Iraqi liberation almost like he was a Republican political operative. But he also adds some flavor that make his perspective unique among the "in the war zone" commentaries I've read.

I have found some of the most outstanding, brilliant and dedicated human beings here in the middle of a war zone, half way around the world, willing to risk everything to give the Iraqi people an opportunity to have a future bright with the promise of freedom. They range from Department of State employees, to military members, to civilian contractors building bridges and infrastructure, to just ordinary, everyday people. They all have answered the call to do their part.

Indeed. Some of those extraordinary people are even military chaplains.

Our Lady of Victories

Pray for us.

(stovepipe hattip: Best of the Web)

UPDATE: Best of the Web has a followup, in the form of a comment, "from reader Richard Whitlock, a captain in the Texas Army National Guard".

I'm tired of people saying "hanging off of his gun" like it's dangling from a peashooter. The weapon system that the rosary is hanging off of is none other than a M242 25-millimeter Bushmaster, the primary direct-fire armament of the M2 Bradley, and it is technically a "cannon" and not a "gun."

In fact, the totally appalled lady you so hilariously quoted is totally missing the point in that the rosary was still hanging off the cannon, meaning the weapon hadn't been shot yet despite probably many chances to do so. The recoil from firing would have sent that rosary flying, meaning the photo shows that the careless/heartless/whatever soldier had actually decided to preserve life, not take it.