Drawing of Child Soldier

Recently I read an article called “Obama Quietly Okays Military Aid to Countries That Use Child Soldiers.” In the name of National Security the president exempted Yemen, Chad, and South Sudan from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 that prohibits the U.S. government from providing military assistance to countries that directly use, or support the use of, child soldiers.

From a friend exiled from a county in Africa I heard tales of horror how children are conditioned to kill without thought or conscience. Child soldiers are so abhorrent of the killing they did they often cannot talk about their experiences afterwards but they do draw pictures of the horror.

Today, Nov. 11th Veteran’s Day I listened to two veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan wars talk about their own experiences in war and about the book they edited “Fire and Forget”. The book is a collection of short stories by veterans of these wars who have a tough time about their war and killing experience but via fiction, like the drawings of child soldiers, are able to describe the effect of being conditioned to kill, or as the Army calls it, “reflexive killing”, killing without conscience.

The military admits and soldiers confirm they are being trained at military schools, like at Marquette University in this type of killing, which violates the teachings of our Catholic Church and the values of the Gospel. You can find more documentation of Marquette University teaching killing at Teach War No More or Marquette Be Faithful to the Gospel and No Longer Host Departments of the Military (ROTC).

Despite our protest and “breaking the silence” this type of training young man and woman, to kill without conscience, like child soldiers. continues at Marquette University, the only university in the five county area to host this type of training on campus. Colleges and Universities, by law, are required to make available ROTC military training but are not require to host it on campus. ROTC students from the five county area are sent to Marquette for classes and military training and conditioning how to kill without thought or conscience.

I asked the question of why the Catholic Archbishop, Presidents of Marquette University and other administrators at Marquette are allowing this to happen. They have not responded. Is it for money? The other day I heard that the Department of Defense is closing thirteen ROTC programs so they can spend millions more on big city universities like Marquette University. How much does Marquette take in from the Department of Defense for hosting three departments of the military, Schools of Army, Navy/Marines and Air Force? If not for ‘riches’ is it
for ‘honor’ or ‘pride, the other evils of Lucifer according to St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus and former soldier?

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Martin of Tours, a soldier in the Roman Empire. Legend has it that Martin, as a soldier in the military, was approached by a scantily clad beggar near the gates of Amiens, France. He impulsively cut his military cloak in half to share with the man. That night, Martin dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak he had given away. Soon after this work of mercy he was baptized in the Christian faith and refused to fight in the Roman military. Before Julian Caesar he said: “Hitherto I have served you as a soldier; let me now serve Christ…. I am a soldier of Christ and it is not lawful for me to fight.” He went on to become a renowned Bishop and Theologian in the Church. His is a journey from the works of mercy to the works of resistance, conscientious objector in the military.

Today we also celebrate Veterans Day. Veterans Day has its roots at the end of World War I, “the war to end all wars”. Now many wars later, and with the teaching of reflexive killing since War World II, what better way to honor our veterans than to stop teaching killing without conscience at Marquette Catholic University?

A few years ago the Archdiocese closed the fourteenth of the seventeen Catholic Churches in North Central Milwaukee, the poorest and most segregated area of Milwaukee. The money from the closing and sale was transferred to one of the three Catholic churches left in North Central Milwaukee and on the advice of the Archdiocese was put into an endowment fund for ‘future church’ use rather that using it for outreach to the neighborhood where poverty and lack of basics, like beds, stoves and refrigerators is rapidly increasing.

What is the Archdiocese of Milwaukee all about teaching killing in its major Catholic university and taking money from closing Catholic Churches in the poorest of neighborhood and putting it away in an endowment fund?

St. Martin of Tours, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Dorothy Day the veterans who died in our endless wars pray for us sinners and help us to understand that peace and justice start at home, here in Milwaukee.

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