Editors Note: I have just returned from a bout of non-recreational travel over the past two weeks. I apologize for my tardiness in replying to some comments left on this site and I am eager to catch up on a few places where I have not had the pleasure to read since I have been away. I always considered this blog something of a half-minded lark that I write in when my brain gets full, but I was surprised by how much I missed writing here. So, I am back, dear readers! It might not feel like I was gone since I was able to squeeze out a post or two, but sincerely, I missed this. Back to it!
I have previously characterized this blog–the Times-Dispatch–as an “officers tent of a volunteer militia”. I spend a lot of this time conditioning my readers on how to feel good about losing, because our Earthly battles are just that, while the spiritual war was won at Calvary. There will be no heaven on earth. There will be no political victory for Catholics. There will only be a lifetime of suffering in service of Christ, and then we will shed our mortal coil and, God willing, return to him.
It is important to understand this because we have to manage our expectations, and our efforts. If our expectation is to win political victories, then we need to put a significant amount of effort into our political operations. If our expectation is to win military victories, then we need to put a significant amount of effort into our military operations, which we are not.
Yet, from time to time, we are permitted by the grace of God to taste something that resembles victory. Everyone in the world probably knows this by the time I hit publish on this article–that the Supreme court “overturned Roe v. Wade”. I have not read the opinion–and I decided, in keeping with my Peasant ideology, I ought not read it. It is enough to know the effects without knowing the arguments. I will act as if a learned man passed through my village and told me the news. I ought to throw up a prayer of thanksgiving, pray that this beginning is brought to a Holy conclusion, and resume my work, whatever it is.
There are four elements to success in a military campaign, according to my study of the American Civil War. The first two are basic: You need supplies, and you need people to wield them. An army cannot fight if the army is composed of only one soldier; an army cannot fight if ten-thousand soldiers are armed with sticks. You need willing men and you need them to be well supplied. The second two elements are not basic: You need strong and sensible commanders, you need a good fighting spirit. Commanders are hard to come by, and oftentimes the first phase of a war is spent eliminating all the incompetent peacetime commanders and promoting all the competent wartime commanders who were hidden beneath them. Fighting spirit refers to two things: The public taste for war–a just war will always have the support of the public, and as long as the public has an appetite for war, it will continue; and the soldiers morale for fighting–a despondent soldiery will refuse to fight, or fight poorly, while an energetic and zealous soldiery will fight hard and fight well. The public taste for war can be won or lost by a commander, the soldiers morale for fighting can be gained or lost by how a commander chooses battles.
Here is a case study. The Confederate States of America had an advantage in fighting spirit and commanders; the Union had an advantage in numbers and supplies. The Civil War could have been concluded with great haste if the Union commanders had executed a violent campaign with speed and enthusiasm; but instead the Union commanders, particularly McClellan, hesitated and feared. A common refrain on both sides of the war was an unwillingness to fight without more troops. The delay caused by McClellan’s incompetence allowed the Confederates to reorganize their army around their most competent commanders, to bring up more recruits and more supplies, and reduce the disparity in the two areas the Confederates were deficient. Jackson’s Valley Campaign is a beautiful example of how the Confederates were able to leverage their strengths–Excellent commanders, a strong fighting spirit–and confuse, confound, and delay the Union from persecuting their campaign. Jackson’s army which began at 5,000 men and was maybe 17,000 at it’s highest point, was able to keep a Union army of some 50,000 busy in the Shenandoah Valley and delay an all-out assault on Richmond, Virginia.
As Catholics who love God and promote the God-given dignity of every human life, how do we measure on the four attributes of a successful military campaign?
We have people–if you were to take self identified Catholics you might think we had an overwhelming number of people, but the reality is that many self identified Catholics do not acknowledge or follow the doctrines of the Church. How many that is, it is hard to say. Even with an optimistic estimate, the opponents of God and the opponents of Life are more popular and more numerous, and it is likely to always be that way. Evangelists, Apologists, Catechists, Parents, Priests, Good Catholics everywhere: This is work you can do. Tell people about the faith, practice it with earnest fervor, demonstrate to the world what the love of God is capable of. Teach people what Catholics actually believe, what the Church actually teaches, and why God actually calls them to His Church.
We have supplies–but can always have more. Pray the rosary daily. Go to confession, celebrate Mass. Put on the Armor of God. Pray for your enemies, pray for your friends. Pray for your priests, because the pulpit is the breakwater against the world. Pray for the Church. As Wood so eloquently put it: if you _____ more than you pray, you might be more part of the problem than you realize it. I have heard several instances where people hold up a rosary and say “This is my weapon”. They are not joking–it is the most powerful weapon in the world–against Sin, Satan, and Sadness. If you are wondering what you can do to help the cause, you can be a prayerful Rosier the Riveter and pray like your life depends on it because it does.
We have many commanders of varying qualities. We have the abundance of peacetime commanders that happens when our commanders don’t have to fight for their lives and the lives of their men. Some of our commanders do, and do so valiantly–pray for them. Some of our commanders disappoint us in varying and unique ways–pray for them too. Here’s the unusual thing: We can’t spare a single man to the enemy, much less our commanders. Pray that our commanders find their fighting spirit. Pray that new commanders find their way to positions of authority to lead the Church in the fight. Pray that our enemies are converted and put to use against the enemy, like that great evangelist St. Paul.
And one thing we have in abundance, an advantage over any enemy that the evil one might throw at us, is fighting spirit. Because our fighting spirit is the Holy spirit. The Holy Spirit fills the hearts of those who can fight so that they fight well. It fills the hearts of those who cannot fight so that they can supply our fighting men with prayer. The Church, and the Church Militant, joined by the Church Triumphant, has the most unquenchable fighting spirit ever known and it only ever gets stronger. Call upon the Holy Spirit to enflame your heart for battle.
But, what do we do, once we have taken stock of the things we have? We must find the enemy and press hard. Concentrate your forces, divide the forces of the enemy. That’s how Jackson was able to fight with so much success in the mountains of Virginia.
What the Supreme Court has handed us, in this ruling, is not a final victory. The Supreme court has divided our enemy fifty times. Catholics are used to fighting under the principles of subsidiarity–any abortion clinic in the country, at some point you will find a Catholic praying a rosary outside of it–I guarantee it. Catholics are fighting a guerilla war against the world, and are very seasoned at it. So now we take the fight to the state-houses across America. Only those members of state-houses can affect this, the rest of us must supply our soldiers with prayers. We will face the unashamed cult of satan, who want to sacrifice babies to the gaping maw of evil. We will face the pearl clutching, hand wringing, “haven’t we gone far enough”, “let’s strike a compromise” crowd of right-liberals who support “the choice” for life, who don’t have the spine to draw a line in the sand and say they will not cross. The folks who need our support the most are those politicians capable of effectuating zero-tolerance legislation prohibiting abortion of any kind. This is the only thing that will be a true victory–and when it is achieved (not if, but when) it will need to be defended legislatively because no legislative progress is permanent, there will always be votes to change the rules and turn over past legislation.
So these are the stakes. Literally: Life or death. Do not suffice to merely choose life. Love life. Love the author of life Himself. Love all that is beautiful, good, and true–and love your enemies, by praying that they come to love it too.
You will never get anything you don’t ask for. Ask God for a miracle. Trust that he will hear you.
Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 