Antiwar.com. Bob Waldrop is urging fellow Catholics to boycott the 2016 national collection in Catholic churches for the Archdiocese of Military Services. He accuses the military bishops of “material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war” and has prepared a document that can be printed and placed into the offering instead. The entire, heroic document reads:
“I am not giving to the 2016 Archdiocese for Military Services Collection.
The bishops of the Archdiocese for Military Services, together with nearly all of their brother United States Bishops, are guilty of material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war. In 2003, both Pope John Paul II and then Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Benedict XVI, condemned our attack on Iraq as an unjust war. In spite of the Pope’s opposition, the Most Rev. Edwin O’Brien, then Archbishop for the Military Services advised Catholic members of the US Armed Forces: “Given the complexity of factors involved, many of which understandably remain confidential, it is altogether appropriate for members of our armed forces to presume the integrity of our leadership and its judgments and therefore to carry out their military duties in good conscience.”
Subsequent events have sadly proven the truth, wisdom, and prudence of Pope John Paul II’s judgment, and the fallacy and danger of the moral relativism embraced by the Bishops of the Archdiocese for Military Services and most of the other US Catholic Bishops regarding unjust war. The consequences cascading from our invasion brought death and injury and social dislocation to hundreds of thousands and devastated the historic Christian communities of Iraq and subsequently Syria. It may fairly be said that those who enabled and supported the war on the people of Iraq are “secondary terrorists” in that they created the objective conditions on the ground in the Middle East that are driving the extreme forms of terrorism currently prevalent in the region. Actions have consequences and those who propose the actions must own the consequences.
Therefore, because of these issues, I am not giving to the collection for the Archdiocese of Military Services. Instead, I will donate to an organization working to resolve the problems caused by war.
It is a sad and scandalous day when a people’s religious leaders fail them so egregiously. I promise to pray for the conversion of the Military Services hierarchy and clergy, and for the moral and physical protection of the members of our Armed Services, who are our sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers, and children. They deserve religious leaders who will courageously preach and teach all of the Gospel of Christ, not just that which is acceptable to the United States Government.”
