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War against Terrorism
The Pacifist Utopia of Paul VI and John Paul II & the United Nations
Lyle J. Arnold, Jr.
War began with creation. In the heavens the good angels and the bad fought it out. When man was created, after the first sin war became axiomatic. Barely into Genesis we see Cain killing Abel (Gen. 4: 8), and only 10 chapters hence, the killing became collective, when Abram and his "company" rescued Lot in the War of the Kings (Gen: 14: 15). In Exodus Moses and his men slew 23,000 (Ex 32: 28). And so it continues. In all recorded history there has never been a century without war. Given original sin, war is locked into the human condition.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is presented by the Apocalipse as a warrior |
John Stuart Mill, ironically one of the founders of modern Liberalism, had this to say:
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself"(1).
To live is to defend. God ordains us to defend the immortal soul by prayer and the Sacraments, and the body by fighting. God Himself is "as a man of war" (Ex. 15: 3). So war is a given in both the spiritual and the temporal worlds. "Only the dead," comments Plato, "have seen the end of war."
Yet, regarding war, the late Paul VI and John Paul II challenged both God and human reality. They did this by making statements about war that are utopian, especially if they are taken as an absolute.
Indeed, Paul VI in a speech to the United Nations in 1965, stated emphatically: "No more war, war never again... If you wish to be brothers, let the weapons fall from your hands" (2).
These words, which could be taken as a poetic longing, were later translated by John Paul II in principles of sociology: "No to war! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity" (3).
John Paul II: "the Muslims are our brothers..."
Above, Muslims beheading journalist Nick Berg |
The words "never again" used by Paul VI reflect an absolute, followed by the pacifist command to be without weapons. But, today if we let our weapons fall, to whom do we submit ourselves? Most probably to Islam. Consider the following appraisal:
"The word Islam means submission, and not just a passive submission to the book of Islam, the Koran. Submission for the followers of Mohammed means to carry out the will of Allah in history. The Muslim doctrine of the Jihad, or holy war, stemmed from the ideas of the prophet himself – that is, that it was Allah's will for a permanent war to reign until the rule of Islam extended over the world"(4).
Likewise John Paul II’s phrase "war is always a defeat for humanity" reflect an absolute. But an absolute that is at variance with reality. Indeed, one may ask if the heroic war by Hernán Cortes was a defeat for humanity and for the Catholic cause. Under the Aztec law there were at least 50,000 human sacrifices a year made to Huitzilopochti, a god known as the Hummingbird, who "savors human blood and feasts on the hearts of men"(5). In one ceremony alone there were 80,000 human sacrifices (6).
Commenting on the importance of Cortes’ fight against the pagan practices of the Aztecs, Bemis says:
“Seeing himself as a crusader, Cortes forbade human sacrifice, cannibalism and sodomy, pulled down idols, and ordered temples cleaned of crusted blood and human remains, for all represented satanic practices to him. At every stop, Christ's Good News was preached and the natives' leaders made to promise to end their-evil practices. Cortes had a supply of icons and banners of the Blessed Mother carrying the Christ Child. These images, together with a large cross, were placed in native temples after they were cleansed...The victory of the Catholic army of Cortes over the gods of darkness and death was necessary before the Blessed Virgin Mary could come to Mexico"(7).
Cortes should not have waged war against the Aztecs to stop their human sacrifices... |
If we were to follow Paul VI's dream of "war never again," and JPII's sophism that all wars are a "defeat for humanity," what would the outcome be for the Catholic cause? Never again a Clovis, a Don Pelayo, a Charlemagne, a Roland, a St. Joan of Arc, a Cortes? Never again a Reconquista, a Lepanto, a Vendée? Instead, what should we do? Kiss the Koran, like JPII ? Or should we call the Islamic enemies of the Cross our "brothers in the one, true God,” like John Paul II did? (8)
Let this present drive by Catholic leadership to a utopia of universal peace and brotherhood come to a stop. It is a dream world. St. Thomas Aquinas said this about such a world:
"Our mind does not produce reality, it merely recognizes it; and dreams are the products of ourselves, not of the producer of the world of things as they are. To live in a dream world is to attempt to have our hearts captivated by nothing outside of ourselves and the pitiful shadows that we can produce in the mental world of our own making. If evil is a destruction of the real, and so of the lovable, the shadow world of dreams is an evasion of the real, and so of the lovable”(9).
The dream of universal peace is a fantasy inside our heads, a destruction of the real. The Romans, who understood much about social reality, had this very accurate maxim: Si vis pacem, para bellum [if you want peace, prepare yourself for war]. The notions of war “never again,” and that “war is always a defeat for humanity,” are not Catholic notions. They are more readily associated with the United Nations Charter, apparently adopted by Paul VI and John Paul II (10). The U.N. is not the answer to peace. It is the instrument to establish an International World Order under Masonic domination. Rhodes Scholar Strobe Talbott predicted that "within the next 100 years... all states will recognize a single global authority”(11). This is exactly where we will be if we do not sever the ties that hold us to this utopia.
Let us be Catholics and follow St. Joan of Arc, who, when an examiner at Poitiers suggested that "if God wills to save France it is not necessary to have soldiers", she answered: "The soldiers will fight and God will give the victory!" (12).
1. John Stuart Mill, The Contest in America.
2. Paul VI's speech to U.N. General Assembly, 10-4-65.
3. John Paul's speech to the Diplomatic Corps, 1-13-03.
4. Marian Therese Horvat, In the Wake of the Crusades, Los Angeles: TIA, 2006, p. 6.
5. James Bemis, "Apocalypto and Guadalupe," Latin Mass, Spring 2007, pp. 44-45.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. "Mr. Tuttle responds to Father Brian Harrison," The Remnant, 7-31-01, p. 1.
9. Walter Farrell & Martin J. Healy, My Way of Life - Pocket Edition of St. Thomas, NY: Confraternity of the Precious Blood, 1952, p. 10.
10. Atila Sinke Guimaraes, War, Just War, Los Angeles: TIA, 2003, chapter 8.
11. Time magazine, summer 1992, apud Solange Strong Hertz, Beyond Politics, Minneapolis: Remnant Press, 2003, p. 229.
12. Ibid, p. 228.
Posted April 17, 2008
Related Topics of Interest
Traditional Teaching on War
Just War Supported by Scriptures
The Universal Republic Blessed by the Conciliar Popes
The Two Visits of John Paul II to the UN
Paul VI Approves the UN
Cardinal Ottaviani Praises the UN
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