Why?
Because someone has to do it, yet we see how the military has been corrupted to serve corrupted government leaders leading us into endless and destructive wars, displacing the native populations as well as killing far too many innocents in a half-hearted attempt to destroy the bad guys -- that is, if one can tell just who the bad guys are!
There is traditional-minded priest that I know who continually discourses on the anti-Christ U.S. Constitution, and writes that we should not vote in any election (or serve in the military?). He is entitled to his opinion, as I am mine.
But being a decent and faithful priest, and me, being -- or attempting to be -- a truthful writer of social and ecclesiastical current events, the fact remains that the Constitution and the military are "necessary evils" if one looks at it that way...
Let's face it: the job of the military is to kill people and break things -- in war, that is. Someone has to "win" the conflict, or we have another Korea that has lasted for sixty-six years! Or Afghanistan, or Iraq, or any of the other misadventures we have entangled ourselves in for far too long. It's obvious that our first president, Washington, was right...
Yet most of the wars and world-wide conflagrations have not been just wars. This is one of the elements that a good Catholic as well as others who adhere -- at least -- to the Natural Law must take into consideration as to whether or not join the military service.
But again, the military is necessary if a nation is to survive in this veil of tears -- that's a fact --period.
The problem I have with the attitude of this priest is that he has the freedom to criticize the Constitution or military service, or anything else for that matter, precisely because we have a strong military, and a Constitution that guarantees our freedom of speech protected under the First Amendment to that very same Constitution that he considers to be an anti-Christ document.
To him I would say that this is what we have to work with, so to speak; this is what the country has as its founding document; this is what has lasted longer than any other constitution of any other country in the world.
I also took an oath (twice) to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Our form of government is not perfect, and that, of course, is an understatement. But the fact remains it is also a form of government that was praised by a previous pope of the Church back in the latter part of the 19th- and early part of the 20th-century, for being a country where the Catholic Church can practice freely without government interference or control. This very same Pope -- Leo XIII -- did warn Catholics about "Americanism": the watering down of doctrine for the sake of "going along to get along" with our separated brethren. Truly deadly, as there can be no compromise with doctrine as always and everywhere taught and believed for the last 2,000 years. To do this, would be treasonous to Christ!
I know that I have mixed several elements in this article, but all are connected in one way or another.
To answer the question: Can a faithful Catholic serve in the military? I would answer, yes. Some reasons may be obvious, and some may not be so obvious.
It can be looked at in the sense that it can be a Cross to bear, and, at the same time, a faithful, practicing Catholic can be an example to others, possibly leading some to conversion. Having said that, it can also be a danger to the Faith, because of the many temptations that are readily available to the serviceman, and now servicewoman.
I served in two branches of the military, and a war, but no one promised me a rose garden when I joined.
Gene DeLalla
