ROTC comes to St. Francis

Thanks to Fr. Kevin Queally for his discipleship and willingness to take risks to speak for the Gospel of Peace. One can not honor St. Francis by training people to kill other people.

I too am appalled at St Francis University inviting ROTC to participate in the education of young people. ROTC is not just a visiting entity with a different point of view, they become an integral part of campus life. I agree we should pray that Pascal values be taught on every campus but ESPECIALLY on Catholic Franciscan campuses! As a Secular Franciscan who has raised 5 children to be very responsible, and aware Catholics, I do hope prayer is enough to turn this decision around – I can see what my emphasis will be as I pray the Franciscan Crown. St Francis pray for us all!

John Dear's article on St. Francis University is absolutely right. I knew some of those Jesuits at the UCA in El Salvador and they were courageous, intelligent and principaled men, deeply conscious of "what Jesus would do." I've read their statements and their papers and they were certainly not "passe." I believe that university leaders who succumb to the Pentagon and money bastardize their commitment to truely educate the young. They impact the future of this country and conveniently call it "passe". Patricia Krommer CSJ

Congratulations to John Dear, S.J.; once again he has heightened our awareness of the many ways we compromise our values for worldly gain. May he be heard and his message spread! He has my supportive prayer.

Ah yes, the military.

Our Church is a Church of peace. We must cry "Peace! Peace!" even when there is no peace. (Jer 6, 14)

I'm just very glad that St. Joan of Arc told her Voices to buzz off as they were tempting her to go against the Gospel of Nonviolence. It's a good thing we don't have any saints that were warriors. How embaressing would that be for us, eh?

As usual, I'm with you, Fr. John. I've been thinking of you as I read JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE. It's all too timely. I fear any world leader who strives for peace will be silenced one way or another, but hope Obama will not be kept from peace-making. Thank you for your efforts. We at Spiritus Christi will keep praying for you and trying to take whatever steps we can to speak out.
Blessings,
Mary

Thanx John for your continued witness. In the Winter 2009 John Carroll University [Jesuit] quarterly magazine there is an 8 page article lauding the University's Military ROTC program. This magazine is mailed out to thousands of alumni. A few of us wrote letters to the editor taking the University to task for having the ROTC program associalted with a Catholic institution. We were sent an email from the editor indicating that, after consulting with others, the decision was made not to publish any of the letters. So much for the 'free exchange of ideas' commonally one of the definitions of a 'University'.

For what it's worth, I include my letter below sent in on Feb 4, 2009.

Tim Musser, Pax Christi - Cleveland, Ohio

ps: For those interested, please go to www.centerforchristiannonviolence.org and click on "Resources" and scroll down to the free download - The Christian Just War Theory: Logic of Deceit, by Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

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Letter to the editor: [John Carroll University Magazine]

Regarding the 8 page article lauding the Military ROTC program at John Carroll University I have a question. Is there a contradiction between the following?: "Love your enemies." [The Messiah, Jesus Christ] and "Kill your enemies." [The military's of the world]

Now, most Christians in the U.S. see no problem with their Universities and high schools hosting military ROTC programs because they see the military mission as service to country, and defender of our freedoms and liberties, even when lethal force is used. To even question the actions and mission of the U.S. military, one must prepare for an onslaught of patriotic fervor and rhetoric.

But question we must. The most curious thing about the myth that Christians can maim and kill other sons and daughters of the Father of all and still proclaim the Gospel is that nonviolence [which is the one political philosophy today that appeals directly to the Gospel] should be regarded as unChristian, while reliance on lethal force and cooperation with massive programs of violence is often seen as an obvious and elementary Christian duty.

While it is not clear how humanity became almost universally committed to a lethal and violent Theism, what is clear is that Jesus confronts this idea of God head on and rejects it as emphatically as is humanly possible. He proclaims its opposite unequivocally: Love your enemies...Pray for those who persecute you. And St. Paul adds: If your enemy is hungry, feed him, thirsty, give him drink. So to whom must Christians pledge their allegiance to?

Putting on the mind of Christ means that we must abandon our lives to His way and His means, not justify and modify them to partake in homocide en masse. The so-called Christian Just War Theory has no basis in scripture and for 1700 years has been a scandal of immense proportions. The only cure for this is for the Church to unreservedly embrace the Truth of the Message of the Nonviolent Jesus Christ.

In the event John Carroll University retains its ROTC program in order to continue receiving federal funding and research grants - under threat from the so-called Solomon amendments, then it should simply state as much. In any case the ultimate question is whether JCU can become a university committed to the nonviolent Gospel of the Messiah?

In the nonviolent Christ,

Tim Musser
Pax Christi - Cleveland

Another case of the empire overtaking Christianity.

If the story I heard was true, even St. Francis was criticized for his pacifist position.

And as John mentioned, Jesuit universities and colleges have buckled under the to the military putting a point of presence on their campuses. I remember reading that Dan Berrigan, S.J. would not speak or teach at a Jesuit institution that had R.O.T.C. on campus. Loyola Univeristy in New Orleans does not have R.O.T.C. on campus, but Tulane University is across the street and the students came hike over there. I believe the the Jesuits have enough funding to pay for the education of every student that attends one of the Jesuit schools. At least now. if the Jesuits would become pacifist, the order would lose alot of blood money, money that is paid by graduates of the military-industrial-educational complex.

By the way, Dan did teach a course at Loyola, N.O. and was arrested for blocking an elevator at the federal building on a nonviolent sit in protesting the execution of the Jesuits in El Salvador.

Peace!

"Wake up and piss, boy, San Francisco's on fire" yelled Captain Price at me during an ROTC class at the University of San Francisco. I did. He was right. I quit ROTC and USF and joined the Jesuits. Then when the Jesuits didn't do enough to end the Vietnam War and supported the Bishop of Fresno in aligning with agribusiness against Caesar Chavez, I quit the Jesuits.

Kevin Queally is to be commended for his actions and John for keeping us moving. Now we have Obama ramping up more war in Afganistan and so it's time for me to quit the USA. Fortunately, I have a field of dreams to move to that is real. It is a universal, international "city of peace" in India called Auroville.

The "global transformation" that John calls for as our common mission is not just something to be wished for and prayed for, it is for us to do now, wherever we are. And how to have the power to do it is through, as Bede Griffiths told me years ago: "community". Madonna said it too quoting the African proverb: "I am because we are".

Passe? Our Church has been like Jesus Christ: the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. We are not a fashionable mega-worship institution with a best-selling pastor entertaining the masses. If Franciscan tenets and Father Kevin are passe, then so is our Church. Let's just sell out to the Pentagon now and stay in style.

They are Franciscans not Dukhabors...

Dear B Sullivan

Do you ever feel guilty about being in the anti war movement.

I was once in the movment too. We were in the end successful in getting us out of Viet Nam.

Then there was Pol Pot. 2 million killed by the communists. It wouldn't have happened if we had stayed. None of my antiwar friends cared 2 cents. They got mad, gave long winded excuses or changed the subject. They do the same thing today when abortion is mentioned.

Does the health services office refer students for contraception or abortion? Does the religious studies department teach Catholic teachings? Does campus ministry address the authentic spiritual and sacramental needs of students? These are the real issues that young Catholic students face, not this leftist political nonsense of opposing ROTC.

One of the many bad things about President Bush's war in Iraq has been to cause Americans to lose focus on the role and need for a military establishment. Some problems in the world, Darfur comes to mind as an immediate example, can still only be solved by the intervention of trained armed forces.

Jesus was not opposed to, nor disrespectful of the profession of arms. His meeting with the centurion and admonition to soldiers about proper behavior tells us this. In his world and ours justice, could and can, sometimes be had only by the application of force.

In the 21st Century, officers will be called upon to make critical decisions regarding things like rules of engagement and how to apply the Law of Land Warfare in increasingly ambiguous environments. I for one, would like some of those officers to have received the benefit of the moral and ethical teachings found at Catholic colleges.

I commend Father Queally and John Dear for publishing this information. It is an outrage that a Franciscan school would accept ROTC on their campus and still pretend it preaches non-violent conflict resolution. I am a faculty member at Saint Francis and I sat in on the meeting where this issue was discussed. First, the meeting was scheduled during finals week, a week when many faculty and students could not afford to attend. Second, the proposal was not published to the university at large. Third, the President did not even bother to attend the meeting to hear out the concerns of dissenters.
The President's mouthpiece merely browbeat us and claimed that he was motivated to accept ROTC training because we Franciscans must minister to all. He argued that we would be in a position to train officers in the military to approach conflict as Francis would.

Unfortunately, some faculty asked specifically whether the military would ever allow its officers to resolve conflicts non-violently or without the threat of violence. Their answer was that a soldier "does not have time to think" unless it is about the welfare of his own troops. How that exemplifies Franciscan ideals is quite beyond me.

No one argued that there is no place for the military in our society at large, and no one argued that the military could not achieve peace. After all, St. Francis did not condemn war, but neither did he personally arm himself and study military science! By contrast, the military failed to demonstrate that they could accept a dedicated Franciscan within their midst. How can our mission be compatible with theirs, but their mission has no place for our "passe" mission? Most importantly, our university has failed to insist that some small part of society SHOULD be dedicated to non-violence.

If the President of the University insists that we must minister to all, I encourage him to prove that we are committed to nonviolence by creating an equal number of full scholarships for students who are contractually obligated to serve the poor and needy by advocating non-violent conflict resolution. He should put his money where his gleaming teeth are.

Thanks to people like Fr. John Dear, S.J. and Fr. Kevin Queally, T.O.R., there is still hope in this world for non-violence. I commend these two men and all who like them who oppose war and violence. St. Francis did all he could for peace. I am extremely dissappointed at the staff of St. Francis University for allowing ROTC on campus.We have to live what we preach and I feel the university is giving in to worldly ideas for its own noteriety and money issues.They are selling out on Franciscan ideals. If I were college age and looking for a Franciscan University or a university that is for peace, I would not even consider St. Francis University.
May the Lord grant us all Peace!

Just a thought...

"The pacifist thinks that the alternative to war is peace; it is not. Sometimes the alternative is oppression. Sometimes certain God-given rights and liberties can be preserved only by resistance to that which would destroy them. And to defend certain basic God-given rights and liberties is not immoral but righteous."
-- The Most Reverend Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979)
"A Declaration Of Dependance" [1941]

I am a graduate of an NROTC program (Univerity of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1979). I served over 6 years in the Marine Corps. Interestingly enough, I have since become a Franciscan. I understand the incongruity of a ROTC program on a Franciscan campus but I also object to overheated rhetoric about 'training to kill'. I cannot remember a single expereince throughout 4 years of NROTC that directed me towards 'killing'. And yes, I did serve in combat. I never killed anyone, but I did receive an award for performing 'life saving medevacs' including a premature baby and a victim of an auto accident.

Edward Montgomery
SFO

I do not favor ROTC programs for universities but especially for Catholic universities.

My comment to Fr John Dear,

Could you really think that our President of the USA is a person of real Peace? Don't you think that a person of REAL Peace would be trying to make the other nations come together and talk? Do you think that he is really over there talking PEACE? Don't you think that a person of Peace would think about LIFE? Our dear president is NOT for LIFE! He is for DEATH! Do you know that Dick Cheney and George Bush are related to our President OBAMA! The devil has always been on the rich mans side! Look at what wealth and greed is doing to our poor world!

I would like for our nation to have a newspaper that is cut away from the bias that President Barack Housein Obama is a peace loving person who would like to see all of the nations of the world UNITE! I still am appalled when I think about that soeech that he gave last March. Obama said that he would take his child to an abortionist if she was unmarried and pregnant!

If he doesn't care about his own child that he helped conceive, and if he doesn't care about his own family, (his great aunt who is living in the slums right now), his half-brother who is in Africa living on $1.00 a day, and he has grossed over 4 million dollars just last year between his wife and himself, and where is his love for them!

As a graduate of an ROTC program in a Jesuit university, it is with some interest that I read this essay. I would like to offer the following.
The next time you are sitting in a trusty Airbus or Boeing product, somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and it begins to sputter and cough. Just who do you think the captain is going to call for help? As a Naval Aviator, I have spent thousands of hours out there, day and night, ready to respond to the call. And when it did come, I have never been asked about my stand on war, death penalty or anything else. It is always more like "can you escort us all the way to Shannon?" For those of you who tried to damage the aircraft that I was scheduled to fly to protect you, I forgive you. I would hope that you would have the moral integrity that, if you find yourself in this situation, you would pass a note to the cockpit that is not acceptable for you to be aided by a military aircraft!
Training for response to bad things does not equate to a desire for them to happen. Nowhere in my military training was I ever told nor did I ever have a desire to "kill my enemies", what I was told was that war is a horrible last resort to maintaining peace. This is why there is a slot in the tunics of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican. They pray everyday that they do not have to reach into the slot. This too is part of being community.

Thanks to Fr. Kevin and his willing to be an apostle of peace. Peace is the way, and not guns, and bombs. Thanks to Fr. John for bringing this to our attention.

What does this position say of a Catholic who serves as a military leader? Should we reserve this kind of important leadership only for those who have attended non-Catholic or secular universities?

When the author writes, "students graduate not prepared to follow the nonviolent Jesus but to kill for the empire," he clearly articulates his pacifist stance. This position is irresponsible and unrealistic.

This country must maintain a strong military. Catholic enlisted and officer leadership must recive not only the support of their religious leaders, but are entitled to their moral and spiritual guidance in these matters of war. Why would you deny them a Catholic education?

I attended a Catholic college. I served in Iraq, along with many good citizen soldiers. Do not dishonor us! If any of you oppose military policy, address your leaders!

If only the local bishop would take a stand and refuse to set foot on campus the same way that Bishop D'Arcy is doing for Notre Dame inviting President Obama. But, I guess the lives we take from the wombs are more important than the lives we take at the end of a rifle.

This issue continues to tear at me. I would not want my son or daughter to take ROTC, but if they joined the military, I would hope someone trained in Catholic principles would lead them. How do we form such leaders? ROTC on Catholic campuses is one answer.

How do we break the cycle of war and violence? "Study war no more???" But does that mean that we all become total pacifists? No armed services? If so, that is at least clear. If there are to be some armed services, Catholics will take part and need guidance. Some of that guidance comes from ROTC?

What shall we do?

Clearer if one is a total pacifist or has few scruples on war... harder for all of us in the middle somewhere.

If we don't have ROTC, how will President Obama be able to send more men to the overseas contingency operation in Af-Pak?

My experience of so-called "peace activists" is that they are more violent, and more full of rage, than they care or dare to admit. I highly recommend that Fr. Dear get himself to an Aikido dojo. Get on the mat and learn, somatically (sic), where anger, rage, violence and peace come from.

If Fr. Dear is still in New Mexico, he's fortunate that (according to the dojo search engine on the AikiWeb web site - http://www.aikiweb.com/) there are 22 dojo to choose from. Tell you what, John - I'll sponsor your first year of training.

I to underwent "Basic" training in the Marine Reserves, at a Franciscan high school while in the 11th grade. This was in the "50's" when we were at "peace" and no wars going on calling for American envolvement. I joined because I knew I might be drafted into the service at the time. After all my years gone by, now I realize how important it is to change our "Basic" training in to Peace training. We have become a culture of violence and hungar for war. I know terrorism has be combated but somehow there has to be another way to reach Peaceful solutions. peace Roger

An honest question for Father John: How does a university make money by having ROTC on campus? I thought that the army brings in people to train the students at their own expense. How does it produce revenue for the host university?

Thanks for your work.

Everyone who posted here would do well to watch all 10 episodes of the series "Carrier" in order.

Fr. Dear is well advised to pay attention to the role of the chaplain in the military. When "Carrier" was filmed 4+ years ago, the head chaplain on the U.S.S. Nimitz was a Roman Catholic priest in the Society of Jesus.

Here is the link to "Carrier" - http://www.hulu.com/search/carrier?showname=carrier&sort_by=air_date&typ...

As far as I know shows posted on Hulu are free (there is broadcast advertising - sorry 'bout that).

I am an alumnus of St. Francis University. I was also a Franciscan brother for the better part of 20 years with the Franciscan TOR community there. I was never a good Franciscan myself but I do remember some things like for example how St. Francis wrote in his rule of life for Third Order, "They are not to take up lethal weapons."

I am disturbed to see that SFU now has a Department of Military Affairs. I support every effort made by SFU to be of service to veterans however I am strongly against SFU being involved in the training and study of war.

Jesuits, Benedictines, Oblates... can all do as they like at their schools. Franciscans however tell the world that they are all about peace and not just some nice fluffy-lovey-dovey peace but a real commitment to not being about war. “They are not to take up lethal weapons.”

I feel strongly about this. Next time I get a call from SFU asking for a donation I will just say no. Oh yea, thanks for the heads up on this Fr. John Dear. I had seen nothing of this ROTC stuff in any alumni news bulletin. Best wishes as well to Fr. Kevin whom I remember well.

How disappointing and sad that an order of professed religious Franciscan friars simply ignores such a fundamental teaching of its founder. However, this is nothing new, Francis himself suffered such rejection by his "followers". From my perspective there is abundant irony in the fact that this is made public by a Jesuit. Thank you Father Dear for revealing this; and I applaud my friend, Father Kevin for living his faith in spite of the personal consequences. We can only pray that the "Franciscans" at Saint Francis University will see the light and reverse this decision which is diametrically opposed to their professed way of life.

Well, it certainly looks as if the comments in this blog show decisively which side the people are on. Keep on keepin' on, Kevin and John...as for the St. Francis administration...I recommend looking at these posts with an humble and honest and heart...leave the justifications and excuses aside for a moment.

I am a graduate of Saint Francis University and am hugely disappointed by the decision to institute an ROTC program on campus. In fact, I e-mailed my objections thereto to Father Gabriel Zeis, the University's president, who never even did me the courtesy of a reply. I have been a loyal financial supporter of the school for many years; however, they will not receive another cent from me as long as ROTC remains at SFU.

Just as odious as the appearance of ROTC on this "Franciscan" campus is the manner in which the addition of ROTC to the curriculum was handled. One would think that such a grave curricular modification, cutting to the school's fundamental educational philosophy, would only have been made after lengthy and open discussion/debate involving all facets of the SFU community: administration, faculty, staff, students, and alumni. This discussion never happened; in fact, alumni were told nothing of the decision to add ROTC until informed of the same in a newspaper article, by which time the decision of the University administration had been made.

I stand here today humbled by the task before dofus kamas, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our cheap dofus kamas. I thank President dofus power leveling for his service to buy dofus kamas, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.