The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 5 of 9)

br> Lakewood, OH /p>

You took a very courageous stand in shining a very truthful but very respectful light on John Paul, and you may catch a lot of hate mail on it -- but not from this Catholic. I am pro-Life, orthodox, and still loyal to Rome, but, whereas I do accept that the pope is infallible, as defined by the Church and not ultramontane extremists, I do not at all accept the proposition that any pope is inerrant. Only God can be inerrant -- and that is not just my opinion -- but established Catholic doctrine.

You are quite right on modern Rome's perspective on war, which is just a magnifying mirror of its present policy on capital punishment. The Church through all the ages has ratified that the State does at times have to declare war -- and to punish malefactors. Popes have called for crusades, and I believe that Julius II even engaged personally in battle or at least was at the battle field to guide the outcome. Benedictine monasteries in Anglo-Saxon England once had royal grants to hang thieves caught working mischief on their lands: I never read that the abbeys and priories did not avail themselves of these royal grants of authority -- or that Rome ever declared such rights to be null and void.

The Apostles made their position crystal clear on the right of the State to put malefactors to death. St. Paul wrote something like: "Not for nothing has God granted the power of the sword to the prince." Sometimes princes use their sword for war, too. St. Peter executed two people just for lying; Scripture records that the Angel of the Lord, himself, carried out the sentence to demonstrate Divine ratification of the Apostolic will. And, if people can be executed for lying, then Saddam Hussein could quite legitimately have been put out of our misery long, long ago. His own mother said he was evil.

Both Moses and Joshua ratified the legitimacy of both war and capital punishment -- Moses putting thousands to death on a single occasion. St. John the Baptist, who had little patience with the mitered heads of his day - very respectfully answered the Roman soldiers who came to him asking for advice on the nature of salvation. St. John the Baptist did not say to them that they had to lay down their weapons; instead, he told them that they should, among other things, be content with their pay: well, why do soldiers get paid? So, both testaments record the Divine judgment on both war and capital punishment -- both of the latter being related to the same doctrines of justice and protection.

p>In closing, let me say that I have the greatest respect for President George W. Bush, and I will follow him. I wish that many of the allegedly Catholic yet ultra-liberal bishops in this country had even a tenth of President Bush's integrity, Christian faith, and sense of honor. It is also so refreshing to have a president who loves and respects his wife; who is a man of prayer -- a man of God; and who knows the meaning of the word "oath." Yes, in this war upon all regimes of terror, I will stand behind President Bush and with my people. br> -- William David Kirkpatrick br> Historian /p>

Yes, previous popes equated war with injustice.

Pope John XXIII, Pacem et Terris:

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