Confronting the Generals
Callahan, Sidney
A s U.S. cruise missiles have been deployed again, I am reminded of a conference I attended in California. There I met three young U.S. Army generals who were also invited speakers. They were...
...As for ecumenical outreach, Bishop Clark has established a covenant relation with the Episcopal church, and a formal agreement with the Jewish community to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism as well as to share resources on mutual social concerns...
...How could they when, as a Christian, I believe in a God who chooses to suffer violence on the Cross rather than to sponsor it...
...troops suffocating entrenched Iraqi soldiers by bulldozing tons of sand over their bunkers...
...And Barry McCaffery, who I surmised was a fellow Catholic, said that the just-war doctrine resolved moral problems for him...
...All right...
...Dennis O'Brien A PARISH DISMISSAL Tough decisions in Rochester // ~ t may be symbolic that Bernard McQuaid, the crusty nineteenth-century bishop of Rochester, New York, departed the First Vatican Council before the vote on papal infallibility (July 18, 1870...
...Army be exemplifying the best traditions of Christianity when "Thou shalt not kill" is a central commandment...
...Mary Ramerman's vestments included a stole, the official mark of ecclesiastical offices not open to women...
...The general didn't bat an eye...
...the army, he claimed, was living out the most godly ideals of the Christian tradition...
...I am convinced by the thinkers who affirm that Christians must not go to war and must eschew all violence...
...My disagreements with the speech were not due to personal prejudice...
...I support international tribunals for war crimes, and grant the need for coercive but nonlethal police actions to restrain predators and psychopaths...
...Supporters of just-war theory point to the necessity of war to stop a Hitler or the horrors of the Holocaust, or to overthrow torturers, thugs, terrorists, and tyrants like Idi Amin or Pol Pot...
...In his book, Can't Hold Back the Spring: The Blossoming of Corpus Christi Church (Mercury Print Productions, 1997), Callan recounts the resurrection of Corpus...
...Reaction in Rochester has been almost universally proCallan, who is viewed as the victim of narrow-minded authoritarianism...
...Both are individuals of real stature and moral sensitivity...
...The service was packed to overflowing, the bishop was applauded for his sermon-but he was greeted as he left the cathedral by Masculuso and his group protesting the apparent condoning of serious sin...
...At Corpus Christi, the parish associate, Mary Ramerman, assists at the Eucharist in vestments and all Christians are welcomed to the Communion table...
...On August 15, 1998, the pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Rochester, Father James Callan, announced at the Saturday evening Mass that, at the insistence of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he had been "fired" from the position he had held for twenty-two years...
...Aren't we enjoined by Christ to love our neighbors, even our enemies, as ourselves...
...During our time in Rochester, Corpus Christi was certainly our favorite place of worship...
...Politely I began by saying that I too was a Southerner, indeed a military child whose people had fought in every war since the Revolution...
...In November 1997, Bishop Clark held a special service for gays, lesbians, and their parents at the cathedral...
...So-called good violence is losing its moral authority and can hardly remain firmly differentiated from bad violence...
...Can there be "good violence" or "remedial, righteous violence" that can overcome or prevent "bad violence...
...More to the point, can we have UN peacekeeping forces without a readiness to engage in battle...
...I once read an eyewitness account of Saddam casually putting out his cigarette in the eye of one of his prisoners...
...Only recently have we admitted the prevalence of post-traumatic stress syndromes...
...Yet it is argued that men fight to defend their women as well as for their country...
...crusade against drugs...
...For them the enemies of our country were not seen as morally equal to Americans...
...One general told me that he felt that the conscientious objectors he'd seen who had "suddenly and suspiciously" discovered scruples when war was declared, were really cowards...
...the real sinner is Bishop Clark, whose removal from the diocese has been a focus of Mascaluso's repeated petitions to Rome...
...Contrary to Callan's claim, Matthew Clark, the bishop of Rochester, has stated unequivocally that Callan's "reassignment" was his (Bishop Clark's) decision alone...
...He claimed this campaign had been efficient and ethical, despite accusations from liberals like Ramsey Clark...
...Start with the parish...
...Despite what the generals would have us believe, only those willing to suffer and struggle nonviolently can save civilization...
...Well yes, who wouldn't despise Saddam...
...The issue at hand is one of fundamental ecclesiology...
...At this point conscience pushed me to my feet...
...He gave a witty speech extolling his leadership of the army's operation in Panama...
...Mascaluso believes that Callan is a mere scapegoat...
...Can we let such evil men and their regimes run roughshod over the innocent and not take up arms...
...Twenty-two years ago Jim Callan had refused to accept the "luxury" of living in a parish house...
...End of discussion...
...I didn't get very far...
...Watching a TV series on the history of war or going to see Saving Private Ryan, makes me think that societies have countenanced war because they have never confronted what actually happens during a conflict...
...Equally depraved perpetrators of atrocities in Bosnia, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, and a score of other places also deserve trial and imprisonment...
...In his speech he had exulted with a fierceness worthy of Homer that he had been lucky enough to lead the decisive offensive against Saddam...
...To Mascaluso, it is the bishop who has been too forthcoming in his ministry to women, gays, and Protestants...
...He assured me that while I might hold these opinions the American people did not...
...They were intelligent, articulate, attractive, and had come to pitch the virtues of the new army...
...He has been quoted in the past as saying that he would gladly ordain women if that were permitted...
...Next up on the program was a pugnacious tarheel general...
...I understand the arguments Commonweal 7 September 25, 1998 of my fellow Christians who defend just wars...
...I could not help noticing, however, that there wasn't a mention of bloodshed, wounds, casualties, or corpses...
...The meek will inherit the earth--if proud warriors don't destroy it first...
...Our general then went on to sing the praises of the army as a moral and religiously upright outfit...
...Any questions...
...And in all the books on war and the face of battle that I have ever read, women and their sufferings are nonexistent...
...The end result is an enthusiastic parish which has grown from 200 to 4,000 devoted parishioners, a parish which has rallied to Callan's side in the current crisis, demanding his reinstatement...
...Only "truthforce" (to use Gandhi's word) and good will toward opponents can end destructive cycles of hate...
...The present-day diocese of Rochester seems to be playing out yet another "departure from Rome...
...Serbian war criminals like Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are not going to give themselves up voluntarily...
...Shortly after coming to Rochester, Clark issued an extended and sensitive pastoral letter, "Fire in the Thornbush," on the problems experienced by women in the church...
...After first suspending him from priestly duties, then Bishop Joseph Hogan finally assigned him as assistant to the dying urban parish of Corpus Christi where the pastor was in failing health...
...But in the end, none of these arguments convinces me...
...With enough distance and self-deception it may have been possible to suppress empathy for the sufferers...
...Over and over Christ commands us to love each other as he has loved us, to take up our cross and forgive rather than do harm to our neighbor...
...Nor have we calculated war's effect upon those persons who survive the violence...
...Beyond these facts, it has been suggested, without clear corroboration, that Callan officiated at gay marriages...
...Having lived in Rochester for ten years, I know both Bishop Clark and Father Callan...
...Thus I was fascinated by the generals' moral apology for war and a strong military establishment...
...Where is the church...
...As the most decorated soldier in the Vietnam War, he sustained serious wounds and is a stellar example of the warrior hero...
...Although I had been put down in public, I persisted in private to push the conscience thing with the troops...
...Against a background of stirring music, waving flags, and blue skies, there were shots of attractive young soldiers, both men and women, doing their duty with esprit and skill...
...Today, General McCaffery is celebrated as the leader of the U.S...
...But does this mean I can morally justify missile attacks or full-scale war...
...After the debacle of Vietnam, they told us, the army decided to effect reforms that would create an ethical democratic institution, one in which neither race nor gender would trump individual merit...
...Surely this monster justly deserves punishment for all of his crimes against his opponents and his own people...
...Early on, Corpus Christi became known as the church from which to bury victims of AIDS...
...But, I asked, how can the U.S...
...And there was certainly no depiction of U.S...
...I am also increasingly convinced that choosing violent measures too often produces "chain reactions of uncontrollable violence...
...We must overcome evil by good and struggle for justice only by nonviolent means...
...Whenever we had nonCatholic friends visiting--or when we wanted to prove to our own children that church need not be deadly dull --we went to Corpus...
...That the story is more complex may be illustrated from the fact that Michael Mascaluso, leader of the conservative Catholic Citizens for a Decent Community, has also sided with Callan...
...Mass at Corpus Christi was a happening: a rousing gospel choir with a splendid black leader at the piano, a kiss of peace that was a universal hug-in lasting Commonweal 8 September25,1998...
...In an op-ed piece in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (August 18), Callan cited the reasons for his dismissal: his ministry to women, Protestants, and gays...
...One of the most enthusiastic of the generals who lauded the military and its virtues was Barry McCaffery...
...About half the "parishioners" are non-Catholics...
...If each and every human being bears the image of God, how can we glory in wars which destroy people...
...We were shown a film depicting the army's mobilization and engagement in the Gulf War...
...Establishing a whole range of vigorous ministries to the poor, prisoners, refugees, the homeless, the parish went on to welcome all manner of the "marginalized": alienated youth, the physically or mentally handicapped, then, of course, women and gays who had many reasons to think of themselves as "marginalized" by official decree and dogma...
...Evidently Jews, non-Christians, and nonbelievers were invited to Communion...
...I, on the other hand, obviously no warrior, had been invited to give a talk on conscience and moral decision making...
...My father was a Navy captain and my beloved Uncle Tom was a West Point graduate who had become a major general...
...Nietzsche would have been proud of this thrust against the "despicable" Christian doctrine of the "equality of souls before God...
Vol. 125 • September 1998 • No. 16
