REALITY CHECK (oct31rea.htm)

SUNDAY-TUESDAY
Special "Communion of Saints" Issue
October 31-November 2, 2004
vol 15, no. 177

An Open Letter to My Fellow Catholic Americans

During these times of the Reign of Terror so many have been blinded to the true Reign of Error by not acknowledging the Reign of Christ as Sovereign King to Whom we must account for our actions or inactions for we are His subjects, and His alone. He is the Supreme Judge Who will have the last word.

by
Father Lawrence Smith

      "Terrorism, the President preaches to us, will be fought wherever it is found. Fine. When will we declare and go to war on the fiends terrorizing our children with immodesty, impurity, and irreverence? Who will command us on the front lines on D-Day (Dies Domini) as we mount "Operation: The Lord Over All" to invade and recapture the territory our enemies now hold in government, entertainment, and education? Where are the volunteers for the infantry to do hand-to-hand combat to liberate families, parishes, and society from the reign of error by the politically correct, the bombardment of liberalism and heterodoxy of academia, and the siege of despair and nihilism besetting the nuclear family?"

    In the face of brutal oppression inflicted by dictators on the people of their own countries, what should have been done by decent lutherans to resist Hitler, Russian orthodox to resist Stalin, and buddhists to resist Mao? How should Catholics in America mount an effective resistance to the tyranny under which the slaughter of babies is given protection under the nation's laws?

    -- American patriots wax rhapsodic about the violent overthrow of George III's unjust taxation, monarchic despotism, and the quartering of a hostile military at the expense of unwilling subjects. If the wholesale slaughter of no fewer than 50 MILLION babies, the sanction in law of sodomy, and the inculcation of immorality through the public school system do not constitute grounds for declaring a government illegitimate, what would be sufficient to convince the modern citizen to rise up against unjust rulers?

    -- What steps will Catholics faithful to the fullness of the Tradition of the Church take in the secular American realm commensurate with their righteous stand against modernism in the post-conciliar hierarchy?

OUR CULTURE OF DEATH: A HALL OF SHAME

  • Osama bin Laden and Al Queda – ca. 10,000 persons killed
  • Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia – ca. 2,000,000 persons killed
  • Saddam Hussein and the Baath – ca. 2,500,000 persons killed
  • Adolf Hitler and the Nazis – ca. 20,000,000 persons killed
  • Chairman Mao and the Red Chinese – ca. 50-100 million persons killed
  • Josef Stalin and the Soviets – ca. 55,000,000 persons killed
  • The People of the United States of America and Roe vs. Wade – ca. 70,000,000 INFANT persons killed and counting (including surgical, pharmaceutical, stem-cell research, and “selective reduction” abortions)
    • Around 200 American soldiers died in the Gulf War of 1991 (100 days)
    • Around 1,000 American soldiers have died in the year since the invasion of Iraq
    • Under 40,000 born Americans are murdered each year on US territory
    • Around 58,000 American soldiers died in Vietnam (15 years)
    • Around 400,000 American Soldiers died in World War II (4 years)
    • Around 600,000 American Soldiers died in the Civil War, the deadliest war in terms of American casualties the United States has ever fought (4 years)
    • Around 1,500,000 INFANTS are murdered annually in American “hospitals”

        The population growth in the United States is maintained through immigration rather than by an increase in the birth rate, without which the statistics in the US would soon reflect those in Europe where there is a negative population growth without immigration

        In my lifetime, the United States of America has brought to conclusion the war in Vietnam, the Cold War, and military actions in Granada, Panama, and the Persian Gulf. The metaphor of war has been used in battling against poverty, drugs, and, now, terrorism. Vietnam was a lost cause; the Cold War a "victory" ('tho' untold damage has been inflicted on the "winning" side as well); and Granada, Panama, and the Persian Gulf were against "powers" notable mostly for their military impotence. Poverty, drugs, and terrorism remain as virulent as ever. One wonders if an army with no more success in arms than our government has had against poverty and drugs would receive the same indulgent patience our citizens lavish on the courts, Congress, and the Commander-in-Chief. Will the war on terrorism produce a Mai Lai or a dismantled Berlin Wall? Time will tell. The rain of bombs on Baghdad that began yesterday puts me in mind of the story Jesus tells of Lazarus and the rich man. It is fortuitous that Jesus gave the rich man no name ('tho' in popular piety and art he is called Dives), for that allows us to imagine that the rich man is a type of the Everyman. Or at least any man. The man in our collective mirror, for instance.

        Lazarus had nothing - except rags, hunger, open sores and dogs to lick them. The rich man had it all - except compassion, humility, hunger, and hope of Heaven. One's possession was the other's privation, most particularly hunger. Each man had his hunger satisfied according to its magnitude, for there is justice in the universe. Lazarus' hunger was all-consuming, therefore, only God in Heaven could satisfy him. The rich man hungered for nothing, and, thus, he found satisfaction in nothing.

        Catholics in America want for nothing. As a demographic group we are above average in our income ('tho' below average in sharing it with our Church); education ('tho' "Catholic" schools boast more of SAT scores, soccer trophies, and football scholarships than of student sanctity); and representation in government ('tho' one would be hard-pressed to prove it from how "Catholic" politicians vote and govern). We enjoy all the benefits of constitutionally-guaranteed liberty ('tho' the ever-expanding war on terrorism promises to diminish freedom to a mere phantom of history or a fantasy of fools). And God has blessed us with the gift of the one, true Faith.

        Of Catholics in favor of the war on terrorism as it is being prosecuted in Iraq, I ask, why is it that a desire to destroy second-rate weapons of mass destruction, remove a dictator, and impose (?!) democracy motivates our involvement and wins your approval rather than obedience to Christ's command to "Go, therefore, and teach the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"? How is it that no thought is given to feeding these souls the Bread of Life, but much eagerness animates the effort to bring a consumerist society to the Iraqi people? Where is the sense in giving Iraq a government like ours totally devoid of a moral compass while depriving them, as we have done to ourselves, of the social reign of Christ the King?

        Of Catholics against the war on terrorism as it is being prosecuted in Iraq, I ask, how is it that you want to leave Iraq alone and mind our own business when we daily go about the business of murdering 4,000 babies, 1˝ million each year, more than 40 million since we acquiesced to the demonic principle that human rights include the "right" to slaughter infant humans? Why would you wish to continue the unsavory business-as-usual attitude that half of all marriages are disposable, families are expendable for job promotions, and commitment is recyclable? What possible relationship is there between our heavenly Father's business and continuing our complicity in endorsing and encouraging sodomy, self-abuse, fornication, adultery, cohabitation, and all the other depravities advertised on television, radio, the internet, print media, and the classroom?

        Terrorism, the President preaches to us, will be fought wherever it is found. Fine. When will we declare and go to war on the fiends terrorizing our children with immodesty, impurity, and irreverence? Who will command us on the front lines on D-Day (Dies Domini) as we mount "Operation: The Lord Over All" to invade and recapture the territory our enemies now hold in government, entertainment, and education? Where are the volunteers for the infantry to do hand-to-hand combat to liberate families, parishes, and society from the reign of error by the politically correct, the bombardment of liberalism and heterodoxy of academia, and the siege of despair and nihilism besetting the nuclear family?

        The hawks are right: We need to go to war. The doves are right: We need to stay at home. Both are wrong: Our enemy is not flesh-and-blood, but the principalities and the powers of the world; and we are not the good guys, nor are we fighting on their side at present. The first battle to be waged and won is within the individual soul, and Christ must be the victor in that battle or we will be overcome by the world. Our eyes - fixed on various video screens, immodestly attired people, and the glitter and glamor of worldly wealth and power - are offending. They must be gouged out. Huge planks - abortion, divorce, sodomy, pride, fornication, self-abuse, blasphemy, impiety, and outright atheism - blind us to the need of Lazarus at the gate. They must be removed. We are David, with whole flocks of sheep, who have seized, slaughtered, and devoured Uriah's only ewe. Our Judgement by God will be no less harsh than our judgement against Uriah or Lazarus or the unborn.

        Judgement Day, closer each day, will witness against us with the very blessings with which God now favors us. We have the Faith, we have freedom, we have wealth. What have we done with them? "Lord, we knew that You are a harsh Judge, so we buried Your gifts? Lord, when did we see You hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, or imprisoned and not minister to Your needs? Pray God that it is not too late even at this late hour to say, We deserve punishment for our crimes,Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom."

        The reader will notice that I have called us the rich man in Jesus' story of Lazarus and the rich man. Also note that I did not specify who Lazarus is. Lazarus could be many people. One thing is fairly certain as things now stand: We are not Lazarus. We have one advantage over the rich man: One has risen from the dead to warn us. Soon He will judge us. Will we heed Him? Time will tell, but time is running out.

    Father Lawrence Smith
    Sacerdos vagus
    First written 20 March 2003
    Feast of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfame
    Prince of Peace, Clinton Iowa


      For past articles in REALITY CHECK, see 2004rea.htm Archives
    • October 31-November 2, 2004
      Special "Communion of Saints" Issue
      vol 15, no. 177
      REALITY CHECK