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Local Parish claims warmongers are peacemakers
By Martin Hill
LibertyFight.com
Nov. 14, 2011
In a strange twist of irony, military members participating in preemptive and undeclared wars are deemed "peacemakers" in a Southern California Catholic church. Fourty-nine members of the various branches of the armed services are featured prominently along the wall of St. Dorothy's Catholic Church in Glendora, Ca. The photos, which are flanked by two American flags and a sign reading "Blessed are the peacemakers", hang along the east wall of the church adjacent to the pews. The Orwellian notion that war is peace is clearly at odds with the official teaching of the Catholic Church.
The Parish makes vague reference to a "Military Prayer Wall" on their website, but does not include an actual picture of their display. Instead, they include a garish photo of an the exterior of their church with the entire natural blue sky blotted out and replaced with a gigantic American flag, the filename of which is revealing titled "churchflag".
The jingoistic almost-subliminal message of "war as peace" seems disturbingly out of place, particularly since the military display is located directly in the church "nave", the main location where the parishoners worship, while standing, kneeling, or sitting in pews. [photos of the display are below.]
The Catholic Church has consistently and clearly opposed not only the decade old Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but also Obama's war in Libya and all wars in general.
Pope John Paul II called the Iraq war a "defeat for humanity" and a "crime against peace". The Pope warned, "The future of humanity should never be tied down by terrorism and the logic of war. Never, never, never!"
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II's personal secretary for more than 40 years, relayed two instances when the Pope was "really angry" with "good reason": "before the Iraq War, when he said with force: no to war, war doesn't resolve anything. I have seen war. I know what war is."
Pope Benedict XVI has remained a consistent opponent of the wars. The Houston Catholic Worker reported "As a Cardinal, the new pope was a staunch critic of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. On one occasion before the war, he was asked whether it would be just. "Certainly not," he said, and explained that the situation led him to conclude that "the damage would be greater than the values one hopes to save."
"All I can do is invite you to read the Catechism, and the conclusion seems obvious to me." The conclusion is one he gave many times: "the concept of preventive war does not appear in The Catechism of the Catholic Church."... "There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a 'just war'."
In April 2011, Pope Benedict said "It could be expected that, when God came to earth, he would be a man of great power, destroying the opposing forces. That he would be a man of powerful violence as an instrument of peace. Not at all. He came in weakness. He came with only the strength of love, totally without violence, even to the point of going to the Cross. This is what shows us the true face of God, that violence never comes from God, never helps bring anything good, but is a destructive means and not the path to escape difficulties. He is thus a strong voice against every type of violence. He strongly invites all sides to renounce violence, even if they feel they are right. The only path is to renounce violence, to begin anew with dialogue, with the attempt to find peace together, with a new concern for one another, a new willingness to be open to one another.
In May 2011, the pope said "I invite the authorities and all citizens to stop at nothing in seeking the common good and in accepting the legitimate aspirations for a future of peace and stability." The Just War Doctrine taught by St. Augustine is the benchmark of the Church's position on warfare. The commands of "safeguarding peace" and "avoiding war" are outlined in the official Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2302-2330.
As a lifelong Catholic, I oppose such not-so-subtle war propganda displayed in the sanctity of a Catholic Church. As father Charles Coughlin insisted decades ago, we have a moral obligation to oppose the war propagandists, their system of financial control and their evil "blood business" .
Congressman Ron Paul, a leading presidential candidate in the Republican primary, is the only candidate warning against engaging in a war with Iran. Dr. Paul also opposes Obama's unconstitutional war in Libya, and points out that we have killed a million innocent civilians in Iraq. Dr. Paul has more support among the military than all other candidates combined, and has criticized the policy of the U.S., which has rejected the Just War Doctine of Christianity.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in an official statement on "Display of Flags in Catholic Churches", states, in part,
"Surprisingly to many, there are no regulations of any kind governing the display of flags in Roman Catholic Churches. Neither the Code of Canon law, nor the liturgical books of the Roman rite comment on this practice. As a result, the question of whether and how to display the American flag in a Catholic Church is left up to the judgment of the diocesan bishop, who in turn often delegates this to the discretion of the pastor.The Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy has in the past encouraged pastors not to place the flag within the sanctuary itself, in order to reserve that space for the altar, the ambo, the presidential chair and the tabernacle. Instead, the suggestion has been made that the American flag be placed outside the sanctuary, or in the vestibule of the Church together with a book of prayer requests. It remains, however, for the diocesan bishop to determine regulations in this matter."
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