Which Extremists, Father??

Christmas in Bethlehem 2006


The priests at my Catholic Church are great fodder for discussion and for rejuvenating my willingness to write. During the most recent Mass I attended the younger of the two parish priests officiated.
I’ve come to take issue with many of the Reverend F’s views. He’s a former chaplain at the Air Force Academy. He still has that military thing swirling around in his head. During every mass he includes a petition of prayer for the “men and women serving in our armed forces to protect our freedom.”
I have nothing against praying for the troops to be safe but I find the glaring omission of the innocent civilians from any prayer petition appalling for a man of God to do.
I’m not saying the good Reverend doesn’t pray for the innocent Iraqis but he doesn’t call for the congregation to pray as he does for the troops.
This past Sunday at the 9 a.m. Mass the Reverend F made his usual call for prayers but added a little something extra for the season. There happened to be an Army soldier in the congregation. The priest saw the young soldier and included him in his usual petition by saying, “I see there’s a soldier here today. I want to thank him for serving our country and protecting its freedoms. Especially the freedom to pray freely which is something they can’t do in the city of Bethlehem this Christmas because of some extremists.”
The congregation broke into applause with exception of at least my wife and me. Neither of us could find it in our heart to endorse the mission of the military by applauding a soldier’s presence.
I gladly would have talked personally with the soldier and wished him well but I can’t applaud what he stands for.
The other part of my objection to this entire scene was a priest making a statement so blatantly racist in his use of the word, “extremists.” And, he lied about the situation in Bethlehem. There was, in fact, the usual ceremony for Christmas but the tourism was much less. In a CNN report, one storekeeper in the city attributed the low number of tourists to the most recent round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
I guess my question would be which of the two did Father F consider “extremists”? It was real clear it wasn’t the Israelis.
So, as usual when I attend a Mass with this priest officiating, I left the Church fuming about his militaristic attitude. This time I left telling my wife I had to assume the Father would counsel young people the military would be a good career choice.
And then I decided I had to write him an email to voice my concerns about his political opinions being so overtly expressed. This is the email I sent:

December 30, 20006

Rev. Friehofer,
I wanted to comment on some of the things said and left unsaid in today’s 9 a.m. Mass.
First, you’ve continued to make several references to “our soldiers” fighting for freedom and peace in the Middle East. At every Mass I’ve attended where you officiated there has been a call to pray for “our troops” but an omission to remember the innocent civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan.
In today’s Mass you singled out a soldier in attendance and thanked him for his efforts to keep our freedom to pray and practice religion. Then you followed by inferring this wasn’t available in Bethlehem due to extremists.
I have no problem acknowledging the difficulty of being in the military today, Father. I advocate strongly for American troops receiving all benefits due them for their time in the military. I actively endorse American troops not be blamed or made to feel uncomfortable for their service regardless of our own personal politics.
If we’re to make someone responsible for the tragedy in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East it should be the politicians who have failed us all. We definitely should not lay responsibility on the young men and women who joined the military thinking they were enlisting to make a better world.
With all this said, Father, your inference that “extremists” made it impossible for the Christian faith to be practiced in Bethlehem this Christmas is misleading and just not true. I’ve attached a link from CNN that details a Christian ceremony did occur.
I’d also suggest Christians stop using the word extremist to describe Islamic groups while excluding Judeo-Christian groups from the same description. Sadly, extremism permeates all religious groups.
I have a friend who has a Muslim father and Jewish mother that often remarks she finds it very scary an extremist coveting the world’s oil supply, professing to hear the voice of God and suggesting a crusade in the name of his religion has access to nuclear weapons. She’s speaking of the American president.
I have other friends who have family in Gaza and other parts of Palestine. They describe mass punishments of entire families if one member is suspected of an act opposing Israeli occupation.
They describe children being shot for throwing rocks at Israeli armored vehicles. These children are impoverished and all they’ve known is an oppressive force with sophisticated weapons (often paid for with American tax dollars) dictating where they can go, live and when they can leave the overcrowded dwellings they’re allowed to live in.
In Bethlehem Palestinians are seeing walls being built to keep them inside the occupied territories. The irony is a people who had walls built to keep them in the ghettoes like Warsaw during the Nazi occupation are now committing the same atrocity.
Oppression is oppression, Father. It doesn’t matter if its oppression committed against Catholics or if committed against Muslims. It would seem Christ would not approve in either case nor should we as followers of Christ.
I’d also like to address your call for the safety of our men and women in the Armed Forces, Father. I have no problem with praying for the safety of the men and women in the military.
I would also like to point out there has been over 600,000 innocent Iraqis killed since 2003. It’s estimated at least 40% of that number were children. A large number of those killed were the result of “collateral damage” from American weapons. Large numbers perished during the “Shock and Awe” phase of the war with the illegal bombing of civilian neighborhoods. Thousands of others died in the repeated assaults of Falluja. Carpet bombing and artillery were used extensively before each offensive. Poor and innocent civilians were caught between two forces. Hospitals were seized. Schools were seized. All males of military age were considered the enemy.
I’m a combat veteran of Vietnam. I was wounded in action during the 1968 Tet Offensive. I saw many of my friends die or suffer horrific wounds. I also saw repeated scenes of children burned beyond recognition by napalm and white phosphorous bombs dropped by American forces.
I saw village after village destroyed and the citizens displaced in refugee camps or considered VC. I saw home after home ransacked by aggressive men like me who had no clue about the culture of the people we terrorized.
I vividly remember the torture of a woman by means of water and a beating to get information about locations of the enemy. It wasn’t done by any of the lower ranking Marines. It was done by officers in the “intelligence” section. And it gave us a powerful message.
Now I talk with young Iraq veterans who have returned. I hear the same stories with a different location. I hear about orders to never stop a convoy even if someone steps in front of vehicle. I hear about children being run over. I hear about napalm and white phosphorous being used under different names but with the same results.
I don’t how many “grunts” you’ve talked with, Father, but the reality of war is we didn’t fight for freedom. We didn’t fight for religion. We didn’t fight for ideals. We fought for each other. Its survival and love for one another.
The idea combat is noble or about making peace is a fabrication of people who have never been in combat. Whenever we ask a young man or woman to take up a weapon and hunt another human with the intent of killing we can’t call that person a “peacekeeper”.
Peacekeepers are men like Martin Luther King who cried out for nonviolent resistance to injustice or Cesar Chavez who did the same for impoverished workers.
Peacekeepers are women like Jackie Hudson, Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte, Catholic sisters who subject themselves to arrest and imprisonment to make us all aware of the threat of nuclear annihilation.
I know there are many who think the military an honorable and acceptable lifestyle. I know there are many who think some wars are “justified”.
Smedley Butler, the most highly decorated Marine of his time and two time Medal of Honor recipient, came to an epiphany after thirty plus years in the military. He said, “War is a racket”. He also said he’d failed to have one original idea until he left the military. Butler went on to be an advocate for military veterans and a critic of the military industrial complex that kept us in constant warfare.
I don’t delude myself to believe war will ever end or a military will never be part of the government’s expenditures. I do worry that in this culture of violence we’ve perpetuated in this nation glorifying the role of the military and war sends a rather sad message.
I worry that we’ve included Christ as a supporter of what we do with our military and as a former participant in combat I refuse to accept He is.
Yes, I know the men and women in the military need our love and our prayers, Rev. Friehofer. I know they need the Word of God in their lives.
I’d just ask we temper our support with the sad reason we find a need for troops. I’d also ask we remember the true victims of war – the innocents caught between warring forces.
May God bless us with true peace,

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
2184 S. Newton St.
Denver,CO 80219

Link to Christmas in Bethlehem 2006:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/24/bethlehem.christmas.ap/index.html