Whenever the collection for the Archdiocese for Military Services comes around, I always dig deep to give a contribution and I hope all of you do also. As faithful readers of this blog know, I have special respect for Catholic Chaplains who go in harm’s way to bring the love of Christ onto the battlefield. Father Z reports that some Catholics on the left, surprise!, disagree:
Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter) has yet another attack piece against the important collection to be taken up this weekend for the Archdiocese for Military Services.
In other words they are attacking Catholic chaplains.
In the latest divisive hate piece Fishwrap has this suggestion:
Outside the clergy, a small, lay-led online effort seeks to offer Catholics opposed to the collection an alternative when the basket makes its way through the pews.
Catholics Against Militarism has made available on its website downloadable cards for Catholics opposed to the collection “to put in the collection basket instead of money, just to make their voices heard,” member Ellen Finnigan said.
The cards, in part, read: “A nationwide collection for AMS sends a message to American Catholics that the Catholic Church condones America’s current military activity and post-9-11 wars. … Church is no place to glorify the ideals of the professional military class, which run contrary to most, if not all, Christian beliefs and teachings, including the Christian Just War theory. Today, in a spirit of peace, I offer my dissent.”
Fishwrap upbraids those who create “divisiveness” or who use sharp rhetoric.
And yet here is Fishwrap attacking an established, recognized ministry to well over 1 million lay people, some of whom are children, some of whom are suffering in horrible life-threatening circumstances. Some of them are poor, they work for almost nothing.
Go here to read the rest. The collection is tomorrow in my diocese and the effort of the National Catholic Reporter is causing me to up my donation. I hope you will follow suit. Here are thirty-eight very good reasons to give to support these very brave priests:
1. Meek, pious, and brave as a lion
2. The Dominican and the Devil Dogs
3. The Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg
5. Father John Ireland and the Fifth Minnesota
12. Give Us This Day
13. Matthew Brady, Father Thomas H. Mooney, Dagger John and the Fighting 69th
14. Father John B. Bannon: Confederate Chaplain and Diplomat
15. Chesty Puller and Catholic Chaplains
17. The Archbishop and the Concentration Camp
18. A Chaplain of the Great War
19. Great Jesuits 5: Medal of Honor
21. Great Jesuits 3: Dynamo From Ireland
23. Great Jesuits 2: Chaplain of the Excelsior Brigade
24. Father Cyclone and the Fighting 69th
28. The Mass on Mount Suribachi
29. The First
30. Ladder to Heaven
31. Four Chaplains
34. Father Duffy and the Fighting 69th
35. Father Emery
36. Dominus Noster Jesus Christus Vos Absolvat
38. Grunt Padre Honored in Vietnam
Already donated.
Mr. McClarey, I would recommend Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty as a worthy addition to your list of brave, heroic priests who gave so much for the faith. Please consider including him in future remembrances.
Monsignor Flaherty’s story has recently (November 11, 2013) been re-told by William Doino of “First Things” in an article entitled “Hugh O’Flaherty, Ireland’s Shining Priest”…..http://shar.es/8tG6J
Monsignor’s extraordinary acts of bravery and heroism during World War II, while assigned to the Vatican, saved countless lives, including many Jews, and led to the conversion of Colonel Keppler, head Nazi in charge of Italy during the war.
Monsignor’s memory now serves as a uniting presence in Ireland, so deeply divided from the faith in the wake of recent troubles.
Thanks for your consideration.
https://the-american-catholic.com/2009/08/13/the-scarlet-and-the-black/
I have seen the film and it is magnificent.
I recall in particular Colonel Keppler’s (Christopher Plummer’s) facial expression upon realizing that one whom he so assiduously persecuted (Msgr. O’Flaherty) demonstrated unmerited mercy; in particular, when Monsignor caused the Colonel’s wife and children to be moved to safety upon the allies liberation of Italy.
Likewise, what better word than magnanimity, describes Monsignor O’Flaherty’s visiting Colonel Keppler in prison each year until the priest’s death. Monsignor lived the virtues and thus earned the conversion of the most hardened.
Thank you for honoring him in your 2009 article.
In addition to donations, please remember these priests in your daily prayers and have a Mass said for them. The Chaplain Corps are non-combatants as are some of the other staff corps and are unarmed. Yet they are on the battlefield and in harm’s way to give sacraments and comfort to the wounded and dying. In uniform they receive protections under the Geneva Conventions. Shame on the C.A.M. if they would deny fellow Catholics the sacraments and counsel when they are in grave danger. Military families also need priests who understand their way of life.
As an aside, former servicemen make wonderful parish priests. In our diocese we are blessed to have parish priests who were former enlisted submariners, helo pilot batt commander in Viet-Nam, USMC sgt from the 1st Gulf War and several grads from the USNA and USMAA. John L. Laboon aka Fr. Jake Laboon, SJ was USNA ’42, a sub officer who was awarded a Silver Star in WWII and then a Navy Chaplain. I was privileged to attend a Mass while on staff at USNA when Fr. Laboon was the homilist.
He was hero to the mids.
The Scarlet and The Black is a wonderful movie especially for confirmandi. I’ve been told that the chief Rabbi in Rome converted to Catholicism after the war because of Pius XII and Msgr O’Flaherty.
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Please allow me to add another reason: Lt. Fr. Verbis Lafleur.
30. Ladder to Heaven
Thanks!