Get ready, I feel a draft . . .

...As M.M...

...The draft is not yet here, but it is on the way...

...About these matters, it is even possible that some who favor the return of conscription may share my concerns...

...This should not be permitted to happen again...

...Some, I suspect, will regard all this as premature, maybe even a bit excessive...

...His books include War, Conscience and Dissent, In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jaegerstaetter, German Catholics and Hitler's War and, most recently, Another Part of the War: The Camp Simon Story (University of Massachusetts Press...

...The Catholic church can perform a signal service right now by insisting upon certain minimal protections for individuals assigned to alternate service...

...For those concerned about the rights of conscience, even if they see these as compatible with some system of conscription, the time to . make sure that those rights can be recognized and protected is now-before Selective Service is again in full operation and has regained its power over the lives of young people...

...And counseling, important as it will be, is but a first step...

...THERE ARE agencies available to help meet the need (the newly formed Pax Christi USA Center on Conscience and War, Box 726, 5 Bigelow St., Cambridge, Mass...

...Several, including the archdioceses of Boston and New York, have established registries of prospective conscientious objectors, accepting statements of intent to serve as evidence of sincerity if needed in the future...

...Many of the failings of the Civilian Public Service Program of World War II arose from the fact that the religious agencies involved in its support became channels for Selective Service authority and, more tragic still, a "cushion" absorbing the legitimate complaints and protests of the men in the program...

...They may be right, but I would still stress the need for a greater sense of urgency and a much more intense commitment than is evident today in religious circles...

...And because Christians may yet be called upon to open their hearts, homes, and churches to those forced to flee the demands of a forbidden war, we should prepare now to provide the sanctuary they will need.ary they will need...

...We call upon schools and religious educators to include systematic formation of conscience on questions of war and peace in their curricula and we pledge the assistance of appropriate diocesan agencies in counseling any of those who face questions of military service...

...Too many dioceses have done nothing at all-some because the bishop remains unconvinced of the need or propriety...

...Moreover, I believe-and have written elsewhere [America, August 9, 1980 ]-that military training, especially when it is involuntary, constitutes what the religiously committed used to describe as "an occasion of sin...

...It is not my purpose here, however, to restate the case against the draft...

...Alternate service opportunities must be clearly divorced from all military connotations, and the objectors to be assigned to such service must be clearly supplemental and not in any sense in competition with the normal labor supply...

...In any case, it is crucial that we take up these questions while there is still time...

...Despite the repeated appeals by the American hierarchy that the law be amended to permit such "selective" conscientious objection, the requirement remains that the prospective CO be opposed to all war...

...Another more tangible contribution the church must be prepared to make is to provide opportunities for conscientious objectors to perform alternate service in its many social service agencies at home and abroad...

...There is nothing ambiguous, though, about the position taken in support of "the right of conscientious objection as a valid moral position, derived from the Gospel and Catholic teaching" and the equally direct support for selective conscientious objection something not yet recognized under the law...

...Instead, I want to indicate some of the immediate tasks facing organized religion, and in particular the Catholic church, in view of the very real possibility that conscription will be reestablished...

...some because they are unwilling to risk the criticism such a service might provoke...

...Unfortunately this service is not always publicly announced, with the result that the young people involved, and the diocesan clergy as well, are not aware of its availability...

...To meet their needs a more radical proposal is offered...

...I heard them, but I do not believe them...

...These laudable principles must be translated into effective action on the diocesan and parish levels...

...Nevertheless it should not be too far-fetched, considering the violence of our time and the involuntary involvement of total populations in modern war, to give serious thought to a return to that ancient practice...

...The church cannot teach that one is bound to obey the commands of conscience and deny those who are led into an unpopular stand the same measure of honor and respect given to others who do the nation's will...

...His runaway armaments spending combined with a hardline foreign policy will ultimately require an expanded supply-and, what is even more important, a cheap supply-of available military manpower...

...It is gratifying to note that a number of dioceses are trying to provide such help, though few are equipped to meet the full need...

...The statement's concluding paragraph is particularly impressive in setting forth a set of action recommendations...

...By the same token, even the prospective soldier must be prepared and instructed in the limits of "conscientious participation'' before he is turned over to the likes of the commanding officer of a training camp whom I saw interviewed on TV...

...The Catholic church might well take the lead in reaffirming and guaranteeing the once-recognized "right of asylum" and prepare itself now to provide sanctuary to those opponents of war who are denied, or who reject, conscientious objector status...

...THERE remains the problem of those who are denied recognition as conscientious objectors because the law does not allow for individuals who would distinguish between wars they would be ready to support and the particular war to which they object...

...Now, as even that paragraph signals, I am among those who believe that the draft, whether as actuality or merely as threat, interferes unjustly with the rights of young citizens and denies the democratic and humanistic principles this nation professes to honor...

...Admittedly, some adjustments would have to be made both in concept and application...

...After all, once the recruit enters the military, the draft authorities have no power to determine where he is to be assigned, what duties he is to perform, how he is to be disciplined...

...Sheehan notes in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, "In medieval Europe asylum attached to a sacred place . . . assumed an important place in the peace movement of the 1lth Century, protecting not only those accused of crime, but also peasants, merchants, and others threatened by the violence of the time...

...The church must be prepared to provide moral and spiritual support for those who claim and receive classification as conscientious objectors...

...It is important, though, that so crucial a decision be the product of conscious moral deliberation and not a passive and unquestioning acceptance of an imposed "duty...

...Behind his desk was a poster declaring, "No war was ever won by compassion or conscience, kill...

...Even so, it is virtually certain that the kind of systematic formation of conscience contemplated by the bishops will produce a great increase in the number of men (and, of course, women) who choose the path of conscientious objection...

...Then, too, there are more absolutist objectors who will refuse to register for a draft on the grounds that such action would violate their consciences by imposing even that degree of compromise and collaboration with the military system upon them...

...Episcopal (and papal) style being what it usually is, there are a number of ambiguities in the statement on registration and conscription issued by the Administrative Board of the U.S...

...I suspect that, given the emotional pressures and social controls to which we are all subject, most will still be inclined to accept military service when called...

...Past personal experience lends emphasis to this point...

...Clearly this is a form of discrimination suffered by Catholics and members of other religious bodies which maintain a distinction between "just" and "unjust" wars in their teachings...

...This will present the church with a set of responsibilities which, until now, it has never had to meet nor even recognize...

...The same situation should apply for a truly alternate service under the conscription law...

...Every diocese should already be prepared to provide competent, well-trained draft-counseling services for those faced now with the decision to register or not and to advise others of their rights and responsibilities...

...GORDON G. zahn, a long-time peace activist, has served on the governing boards of Pax Christi, USA, The Catholic Peace Fellowship, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and SANE...

...Objectors to the unpopular war in Vietnam may have found more support for their stand than did we, but they, too, were often rejected and even scorned by parents, fellow parishioners, and pastors...

...To hold back until the developing changes in the world situation have made it difficult, if not impossible, to do what must be done is to make certain a repetition of the failures of the past...

...Nor is this all...

...In my book dealing with the only camp for Catholic objectors to World War II (Another Part of the War: The Camp Simon Story, University of Massachusetts Press), I describe how its members-of which, incidentally, I was one-felt "orphaned" by their church, their witness "unwanted and unheard...

...Yes, I have heard all those assurances that the registration process reinstituted by Jimmy Carter need not and, we were told, actually would not lead to the return of the draft...

...But I do not believe him either...

...Certain cautions must be kept in mind, however...

...THE PROBLEM, of course, is that few Catholics-especially those most liable to be directly affected by a return to the draft-are even aware that such a statement has been issued...

...Catholic Conference in February 1980...

...An adequate formation of conscience should acquaint young people with the full range of options open to them before the orders arrive forcing them to take their stand one way or the other...

...Actually, some should be in effect right now...

...Most critical, perhaps, every effort must be made to avoid assuming any responsibility, direct or indirect, for administering the conscription program...

...The issues of registration and conscription raise questions of the kind and quality of moral education that takes place in our educational system...

...If, despite the opposition of the church to conscription except in the case of national emergency, the draft is reintroduced, the time will have arrived to make good on the "pledges" made for it by the Administrative Board...

...Every parish, school, and seminary ought to provide courses dealing with the issues of war, peace, and nonviolence-courses that do not allow the earliest and pacifist centuries of the church's history to be overshadowed by the "just war" teachings or, worse, by the celebration of the more "militant" virtues of later periods...

...By taking young people who have not yet reached their full intellectual and spiritual maturity and exposing them to an intense program of indoctrination and discipline designed to produce patterns of unquestioning obedience to the commands of others, such training can only impede and obstruct the capacity for making clear moral judgments in questions relating to war and peace...

...02139 is one example), but it is vital that whatever is done be recognizably "official" in nature...

...Specifically, it - raises the question of what educational and counseling resources are available to a person facing registration or conscription...

...Yes, I heard Ronald Reagan, as a presidential candidate, make much of his opposition to both registration and peacetime conscription...

...If we assume, as we must, that there will be many more Catholics seeking such opportunities, it will be to their benefit (not to mention that of the agencies involved) that a preliminary survey be made well in advance of the anticipated need...

...The admittedly harsh, but no less valid, conclusion advanced in my book is that this Civilian Public Service Program degenerated into nothing more than an experiment in the "democratic" suppression of a dissident minority in time of war...

...If such service is really a recognition of the equal rights of the conscientious objector and the military recruit, Selective Service should have no further authority over the former once he is formally inducted...

...Unfortunately, the current contingency planning for a future draft would repeat most of the injustices of that program and add a few more...