The Victory of the Free World

Today marks the Twentieth Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The Fall of the Wall symbolized the Victory of the Free West over the Totalitarian Oppression of the Soviet dominated Eastern Bloc. This is an anniversary of Freedom and something that needs to be celebrated throughout the Free World as Our Victory.

The Wall fell because of the tireless efforts of three leaders of the Free World. Pope John Paul the Great, President Ronald Reagan, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Pope John Paul the Great reached across wall to his native Poland to inspire the rising of Solidarity which cracked the seemingly invincible Soviet control of the Warsaw Pact.

President Reagan had the courage to speak Truth to Power by confronting evil directly. He dubbed the Soviet Empire the "Evil Empire" and it was true. He did not seek dialogue to find common ground, but dialogue from a position of truth and strength. One of his greatest moments came in Berlin on 12 June 1987:

"We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

President Reagan envisioned a world without the Soviet Empire. Without the Berlin Wall. History proved him prescient. On 9 November 1989, the Wall was broken. Freedom had triumphed over oppression and totalitarian communism.

Jihad at Ft. Hood

A horrific tragedy occurred at Ft. Hood, TX on Thursday. It is an event that we will likely be thinking about and trying to understand for a long time. MAJ Nidal Malik Hassan murdered at least a dozen of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. It was an Act of Terrorism.

The FBI investigation will likely reveal further information about his motives and any ties to possible Jihadist Organization. My personal view is that MAJ Hassan acted alone. He was his own terrorist group and likely not associated with Al Qaeda, the Islamic Brotherhood, Hizbollah, or a host of other groups. Reports indicate that he shouted "Allah Akbar" the battle-cry of Islamic Militants (but also millions of faithful Muslims stating a fact, God is indeed, Great). That does not mean he is an Islamic Terrorist or tied to any group, but information on his political past, indicate at least an affinity for the cause of Islamic Jihadists. He was vehemently opposed to the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. He supported suicide bombers and believed that Muslims had an obligation to fight Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also reportedly had a troubled military career. MAJ Hassan was a troubled man who had expressed sympathy with Islamic Jihadists and on Thursday became one himself.

Victor David Hanson, the outstanding historian and author of military history at Stanford University placed the actions of MAJ Hassan in its wider context on The Corner at National Review Online:

Yet I think it is fair to say that the Fort Hood mass murder could be seen in two larger contexts:

1) a disturbing pattern of attacking American soldiers on bases or offices inside the United States (e.g., the 2005 plot to shoot down military aircraft leaving the National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.; the 2007 mass-murder plot at Fort Dix; the shooting at the Little Rock, Ark., recruiting station, etc.), and

2) what I once in two NRO essays called al Qaedism, or the spontaneous rage of disaffected Muslims, who connect their own failures in some sense to generic radical Islamist sentiments, and act out that anger by running over the innocent (San Francisco or North Carolina), shooting Jews (the LAX or Seattle attacks), or shooting up malls or sniping. These are of course different from but in addition to the 24 organized plots that have been broken up since 9/11, four of them this year alone.

In reaction officials and news people often opt for therapeutic exegeses — stress, often of the post-traumatic sort, ill-feeling and bias shown Muslims, family problems, or brainwashing by nefarious outside actors — to explain the cold-blooded nature of the murdering. (I am watching on the news a family member eagerly explain past prejudice shown the killer and, despite his adept handling of firearms to shoot over 40 people, the murderer's being ill-at-ease with firearms.)

Far more rarely do they ever suggest that the Islamist notion abroad that America is to blame for mostly self-induced pathologies in the Islamic world mostly goes unquestioned here at home — and as a result filters down to the lone angry and violent here as the belief that there is some sort of cosmic justification that can amplify their own outrage at a sense of personal failure or setback.

If it is shown that the present killer openly in the past expressed sympathies for or tolerance of Islamist violence abroad, one would have expected, in the current climate of fear of being seen as illiberal or judgmental, little repercussions or formal preemptory action to preclude the possibility of future violence.

In other words, the narrative after 9/11 largely remains that Americans have given in to illegitimate "fear and mistrust" of Muslims in general. A saner approach would be to acknowledge that there is a small minority of Muslims who channel generic Islamist fantasies, so that we can assume that either formal terrorist plots or individual acts of murder will more or less occur here every three to six months.
At some point, if both these organized plots (see the most recent in Boston) and isolated acts of lone gunmen and homicidal drivers continue, and if the prevailing theme continues to be fears of American intolerance and unfairness to Muslims after 9/11, I think the public will resent the disconnect between what they are told to think and what they believe, on the basis of some evidence.

What is important ultimately is that the ideology of Jihadism does not require a sophistitcated cellular network to conduct operations against the West. One man with a weapon and the ideology can inflict great pain and suffering on the population. That is true here with MAJ Hassan. One troubled Army Psychiatrist who was sympathetic to the Jihadist Ideology killed and wounded his fellow Soldiers. Whatever his motives or background, he became, a one-man Terror Cell. In the War on Terror there is no front line and there is no rear area.

We can thank the quick reaction of Emergency Personnel, Civilians and Military within the Processing Center, and the bravery of SGT Kimberly Munley who despite her own wounds disabled MAJ Hassan saving more lives. These are the heroes of Ft. Hood, TX.

The Archbishop Zings the Gray Lady

Archbishop Dolan is the former Archbishop of Milwaukee who was promoted to the See of New York. He is youthful, exuberant, orthodox, but also possess that keen pastoral sense that helps make the fullness of the Catholic faith accessible. He also now maintains a blog, The Gospel in the Digital Age.

In response to the recent Anti-Catholic reporting of the New York Times, the Archbishop penned an OP-ED response that the Gray Lady refused to print. Apparently "All the News that is Fit to Print" does not include "Fair and Balanced" reporting on religious issues. Instead the Liberal Modernist sensibilities of the Times are paramount, objectivity and fairness be d-mned. Below is the Archbishop's brilliant response:

Anti-Catholicism

October 29, 2009

The following article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed article. The Times declined to publish it. I thought you might be interested in reading it.


FOUL BALL!
By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York

October is the month we relish the highpoint of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series!

Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-catholicism.

It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as “the deepest bias in the history of the American people,” while John Higham described it as “the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history.” “The anti-semitism of the left,” is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic “the last acceptable prejudice.”

If you want recent evidence of this unfairness against the Catholic Church, look no further than a few of these following examples of occurrences over the last couple weeks:


* On October 14, in the pages of the New York Times, reporter Paul Vitello exposed the sad extent of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. According to the article, there were forty cases of such abuse in this tiny community last year alone. Yet the Times did not demand what it has called for incessantly when addressing the same kind of abuse by a tiny minority of priests: release of names of abusers, rollback of statute of limitations, external investigations, release of all records, and total transparency. Instead, an attorney is quoted urging law enforcement officials to recognize “religious sensitivities,” and no criticism was offered of the DA’s office for allowing Orthodox rabbis to settle these cases “internally.” Given the Catholic Church’s own recent horrible experience, I am hardly in any position to criticize our Orthodox Jewish neighbors, and have no wish to do so . . . but I can criticize this kind of “selective outrage.”

Of course, this selective outrage probably should not surprise us at all, as we have seen many other examples of the phenomenon in recent years when it comes to the issue of sexual abuse. To cite but two: In 2004, Professor Carol Shakeshaft documented the wide-spread problem of sexual abuse of minors in our nation’s public schools (the study can be found here). In 2007, the Associated Press issued a series of investigative reports that also showed the numerous examples of sexual abuse by educators against public school students. Both the Shakeshaft study and the AP reports were essentially ignored, as papers such as the New York Times only seem to have priests in their crosshairs.

* On October 16, Laurie Goodstein of the Times offered a front page, above-the-fold story on the sad episode of a Franciscan priest who had fathered a child. Even taking into account that the relationship with the mother was consensual and between two adults, and that the Franciscans have attempted to deal justly with the errant priest’s responsibilities to his son, this action is still sinful, scandalous, and indefensible. However, one still has to wonder why a quarter-century old story of a sin by a priest is now suddenly more pressing and newsworthy than the war in Afghanistan, health care, and starvation–genocide in Sudan. No other cleric from religions other than Catholic ever seems to merit such attention.

* Five days later, October 21, the Times gave its major headline to the decision by the Vatican to welcome Anglicans who had requested union with Rome. Fair enough. Unfair, though, was the article’s observation that the Holy See lured and bid for the Anglicans. Of course, the reality is simply that for years thousands of Anglicans have been asking Rome to be accepted into the Catholic Church with a special sensitivity for their own tradition. As Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican’s chief ecumenist, observed, “We are not fishing in the Anglican pond.” Not enough for the Times; for them, this was another case of the conniving Vatican luring and bidding unsuspecting, good people, greedily capitalizing on the current internal tensions in Anglicanism.

* Finally, the most combustible example of all came Sunday with an intemperate and scurrilous piece by Maureen Dowd on the opinion pages of the Times. In a diatribe that rightly never would have passed muster with the editors had it so criticized an Islamic, Jewish, or African-American religious issue, she digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription -- along with every other German teenage boy -- into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans.

True enough, the matter that triggered her spasm -- the current visitation of women religious by Vatican representatives -- is well-worth discussing, and hardly exempt from legitimate questioning. But her prejudice, while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850’s, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.

I do not mean to suggest that anti-catholicism is confined to the pages New York Times. Unfortunately, abundant examples can be found in many different venues. I will not even begin to try and list the many cases of anti-catholicism in the so-called entertainment media, as they are so prevalent they sometimes seem almost routine and obligatory. Elsewhere, last week, Representative Patrick Kennedy made some incredibly inaccurate and uncalled-for remarks concerning the Catholic bishops, as mentioned in this blog on Monday. Also, the New York State Legislature has levied a special payroll tax to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority fund its deficit. This legislation calls for the public schools to be reimbursed the cost of the tax; Catholic schools, and other private schools, will not receive the reimbursement, costing each of the schools thousands – in some cases tens of thousands – of dollars, money that the parents and schools can hardly afford. (Nor can the archdiocese, which already underwrites the schools by $30 million annually.) Is it not an issue of basic fairness for ALL school-children and their parents to be treated equally?

The Catholic Church is not above criticism. We Catholics do a fair amount of it ourselves. We welcome and expect it. All we ask is that such critique be fair, rational, and accurate, what we would expect for anybody. The suspicion and bias against the Church is a national pastime that should be “rained out” for good.

I guess my own background in American history should caution me not to hold my breath.

Then again, yesterday was the Feast of Saint Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes.

Fr. Z also has an excellent commentary on the Archbishop's OP-ED.

Failing the Armed Forces

Virginia has once again failed its citizens. 16 Virginia Localities have failed to mail absentee ballots to the men and women of the Armed Forces for the 2009 Gubernatorial Elections.

The Below follows from the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

"Despite court prodding and changes in state election laws, 16 Virginia localities have failed to meet a deadline to allow absentee ballots of military personnel serving overseas to be counted on time.

"Nancy Rodriques, secretary of the State Board of Elections, said she did not know how many ballots will not be counted.

"The local election districts include the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights and Williamsburg as well as Caroline County.

"Words cannot express my disappointment in our commonwealth," said Rusty McGuire of Hanover County, chairman of the Iraqi Freedom Veterans Plate Project and deputy commonwealth's attorney in Louisa County.

"The Richmond Liberty Alliance, an offshoot of the Tea Party movement, plans to protest the failure outside the State Board of Elections' headquarters at 1100 Bank St. today from 4 to 7 p.m.

"The alliance has been gathering signatures to protest a process that it says leaves military votes uncounted while allowing some felons to vote. State police are investigating several instances of alleged voting by felons, which is voter fraud.

"In last year's presidential race, about 2,100 military ballots went uncounted. The presidential campaign of Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin sued the State Board of Elections in U.S. District Court here. After losing the election, the McCain-Palin team withdrew and the U.S. Department of Justice's civil-rights division intervened.

"Local registrars did the mishandling of the ballots, but the State Board of Elections was brought into the suit because it oversees the registrars."

This is an outrageous betrayal. One has to wonder if this was deliberate based off of earlier reporting on the Board of Electors stating that they did not have to mail off absentee ballots until the day prior to the election.

London Crosses the Tiber?

"Crossing the Tiber" is a phrase used by Catholics to refer to Protestants and Orthodox Christians who have converted to Roman Catholicism. After the Great Schism of 1054 tore Christianity in half and the further split caused by Luther and Calvin's Protestant Reformation, Christian Unity was broken. Yet, in the last century progress has been made in bringing individuals and communities back to Rome. Reunion with the Orthodox Churches is a complex theological discussion on the proper role of the Bishop of Rome and of the filioque clause of the Nicean-Constantipolitan Creed. This is a discussion between Churches who are One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

Reunion with the Protestant communities is far more fragmented. The group that Rome has had the most fruitful dialogue with is the Anglican Church. Anglicans view themselves as the "Via Media" between Rome and the Protesant Reformers. But in recent years, Anglicanism has splintered. There are three groups within the Anglican Communion. The Traditionalists or Anglo-Catholics are often described as more Catholic than the Romans in their liturgy and spirituality. Their theology is undeniably Christian and very Catholic. The Evangelicals are probably the largest and most significant group and while morally they have much in common with Rome, theologically they are closer to the reformers than they are to Rome. The third group are the Modernists who have rebelled against Traditional Christianity and who are a dying breed.

Today there was breaking news out of Rome and London that indicates a possible reunion with the Traditionalists of the Anglican Communion is upon us. It will likely be many more years, but thousands of Anglicans will likely find a home across the Tiber in Rome. That the Archbishop of Cantebury would himself make this annoucement indicates to the degree the Modernist drive within the Anglican Communion's western branches has alarmed him. It has alarmed even the Queen of England, the head of the Church of England.

Pope Benedict XVI has announced a Personal Ordinariates for the Anglicans. Father Z covers the issue from a theological perspective far better than I, and I defer to his discussion on the issue here and here. When the Episcopal Church in the US began to ordain women, Anglican parishes and Anglican Clergy began to cross over to Rome and with special dispensation, were ordained as Catholic priests.

Below one can read the JOINT STATEMENT issued by the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster and the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury.

JOINT STATEMENT BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

Today’s announcement of the Apostolic Constitution is a response by Pope Benedict XVI to a number of requests over the past few years to the Holy See from groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and are willing to declare that they share a common Catholic faith and accept the Petrine ministry as willed by Christ for his Church.

Pope Benedict XVI has approved, within the Apostolic Constitution, a canonical structure that provides for Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony.

The announcement of this Apostolic Constitution brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church. It will now be up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution.

The Apostolic Constitution is further recognition of the substantial overlap in faith, doctrine and spirituality between the Catholic Church and the Anglican tradition. Without the dialogues of the past forty years, this recognition would not have been possible, nor would hopes for full visible unity have been nurtured. In this sense, this Apostolic Constitution is one consequence of ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.

The on-going official dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion provides the basis for our continuing cooperation. The Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and International Anglican Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) agreements make clear the path we will follow together.

With God’s grace and prayer we are determined that our on-going mutual commitment and consultation on these and other matters should continue to be strengthened. Locally, in the spirit of IARCCUM, we look forward to building on the pattern of shared meetings between the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales and the Church of England’s House of Bishops with a focus on our common mission. Joint days of reflection and prayer were begun in Leeds in 2006 and continued in Lambeth in 2008, and further meetings are in preparation. This close cooperation will continue as we grow together in unity and mission, in witness to the Gospel in our country, and in the Church at large.

London, 20 October 2009

+ Vincent Gerard Nichols

+ Rowan Williams

Cardinal Newman would be very pleased to see this. I would argue that this has something to do with his prayers.

A Patron Saint for Catholic Army Chaplains

Army agrees Kansas priest worthy of Medal of Honor

By JOHN MILBURN
The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. — As his fellow prisoners of war returned home from the Korean War, they shared stories of self-sacrifice about Rev. Emil Kapaun, the humble priest from Kansas.

The prisoners of the 8th Cavalry Regiment spoke of how Kapaun, an Army chaplain, continued to look after his men even though he was wounded and sick himself. Risking his own life, Kapaun would sneak out after dark to scrounge food for those too weak to eat, fashion makeshift containers to collect water and wash their soiled clothes.

Kapaun died at the camp hospital seven months after he was first taken captive by the Chinese in 1950. More than a half-century later, the Army's top civilian leader has recommended that Kapaun, who is also a candidate for sainthood, receive the Medal of Honor.

For the Rest of the Article please visit the Atlanta Journal Constitution Website.

There also is a "cause" currently before the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints for Fr. Kapaun. For Fr. Kapaun to be declared a Saint the Congregation must investigate his background and deem it worthy of emulation while also validating a minimum of Two miracles that can be attributed to the individuals intercession with Jesus Christ. Earning the Medal of Honor as a Catholic Army Chaplain would certainly indicate a life worthy of emulation in the service of others.

If two miracles can be validated, Fr. Kapaun would make an excellent candidate for the Patron Saint of Catholic Army Chaplains. Not only did he live a holy and exemplary live, but also set an example for Army Chaplains by his heroic actions while a Prisoner of War to the North Koreans.

Mission Complete

1/25 SBCT has returned from its deployment to Iraq and held its official Redeployment Ceremony yesterday 8 October 2009. The Fairbanks Daily News Miner has special coverage in today's Paper. The BDE Celebrated its return from Iraq, but also remembered those who did not return but gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis, Domine, Et Lux Perpetua Luceat Eis. Te Decet Hymnus Deus, In Sion, Et Tibi Reddetur Votum In Ierusalem. Exaudi Orationem Meam; Ad Te Omnis Caro Veniet. Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis, Domine, Et Lux Perpetua Luceat Eis.

“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn becometh thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee a vow shall be repaid in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer; unto thee all flesh shall come.

SPC Heath K. Pickard
PFC Cody J. Eggleston
SPC Cody L. Lamb
SPC Christopher P. Sweet
CPL Michael B. Allenman
CPL Zachary R. Nordmeyer
CPL Michael L. Mayne,
SPC Israel Candelaria-Majias
SSG Christian E. Bueno-Galdos
SPC Michael E. Yates
SPC Charles D. Parrish