WASHINGTON — Authentic Catholics oppose abortion in all instances and pray for world peace.
So when a maniac shoots up a school, some believe Catholics also should favor gun control, just as they support legislation to stop abortion.
“If I had my way, society would have no guns,” said Franciscan Father Joseph Nangle, associate pastor of Our Lady, Queen of Peace parish in Arlington, Va.
Father Nangle spoke with the Register after joining 63 other priests, bishops, nuns and Catholic theologians in signing a letter that urges “fellow Catholics in Congress” to support more restrictive gun laws.
“Pro-life citizens and elected officials have a responsibility to show greater moral leadership and political courage when it comes to confronting threats to the sanctity of life posed by easy access to military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” states an opening portion of the letter, which goes on to call out pro-gun-rights members of Congress, including House Speaker John Boehner and former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan, for receiving “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association.
The letter continues, “Members of Congress who take pride in their pro-life stance and appeal to family values have no excuse for inaction, and neither do any of us who share a firm commitment to these values.”
Father Nangle’s peace campaign includes homilies against American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the public’s fascination with football.
“I’m opposed to the Super Bowl, and every year at this time I preach about how awful this event is,” Father Nangle said. “I don’t see why we need these mastodons running up and down the field giving each other concussions.”
Yet Father Nangle concedes that his views on violence incorporate a commitment to an ideal that is sometimes difficult to achieve.
“My support of more gun legislation is just to say, ‘Let’s keep moving in this direction,’” Father Nangle said, explaining that he believes no one will rid society of guns anytime soon.
The pro-gun control priest also wants to clear up misperceptions regarding Catholic teaching on guns and gun rights.
“There is no clear Church teaching on this,” Father Nangle said. “One can be 100% pro-life while owning a gun, for the purpose of defending life, for sure. There are no easy answers for Catholics on this issue.”
Calls for New Controls
Since the Dec. 12 gun massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Catholics have received a series of messages suggesting they should get behind President Barack Obama and other politicians who are leading the effort to pass more gun laws in the wake of the Newtown massacre.
Among the most high-profile expressions of support for new restrictions on gun ownership by Americans were the January statement of Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi and the December statement of the chairmen of three committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Father Lombardi, in his weekly editorial for Vatican Radio, explained that guns may be “instruments used for legitimate defense” of life, but he also expressed his support for the statement signed by Father Nangle and for political moves in Washington toward more gun control.
“The initiatives announced by the United States government in view of limiting and controlling the diffusion and use of arms are certainly a step in the right direction,” Father Lombardi said.
Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif., Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City and Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., issued their Dec. 21 statement in response to the Sandy Hook massacre of 20 children and six teachers. The bishops head the USCCB’s Committees on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Communications; and Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, respectively.
Their statement says, in part: “With regard to the regulation of firearms, first, the intent to protect one’s loved ones is an honorable one, but, simply put, guns are too easily accessible. The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, in their document, ‘The International Arms Trade (2006),’ emphasized the importance of enacting concrete controls on handguns, for example, noting that ‘limiting the purchase of such arms would certainly not infringe on the rights of anyone.’”
According to that 2006 Vatican document, “Weapons cannot be considered as any other good exchanged on the global, regional or national market. Their possession, production and trade have deep ethical and social implications, and they must be regulated by paying due attention to specific principles of the moral and legal order. … Therefore, the adoption of instruments and legally binding measures on trade control of conventional weapons on the global, regional and national level is essential and urgent (Pope John Paul II, "Message for the World Day of the Peace," 1999, No. 11).
In a Jan. 18 statement discussing the U.S. bishops’ attitude with respect to new gun-control proposals that might be forthcoming from President Obama, Bishop Blaire cited the five priorities identified in the bishops’ 2000 document “Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice.”
Noted Bishop Blaire’s statement, “These were: 1. Support measures that control the sale and use of firearms, 2. Support measures that make guns safer, 3. Call for sensible regulations of handguns, 4. Support legislative efforts that seek to protect society from violence associated with easy access to deadly weapons, including assault rifles, and 5. Make a serious commitment to confront the pervasive role of addiction and mental illness in crime.”
Gun-Rights Defenders
Catholic defenders of gun rights argue that using a weapon, of any type, to defend the innocent against aggression is consistent with Church doctrine.
Romesh Ponnuru, a National Review writer who converted to Catholicism in 2004, said the mainstream media often misunderstand what actually constitutes authoritative Church teaching. He fears this may confuse Catholics on issues such as capital punishment and guns.
“Catholics should give serious consideration to proposals to reduce violence,” Ponnuru told the Register. “But pro-life Catholics of good conscience can reach very different conclusions on what will and will not reduce violence.”
Ponnuru said that a ban on assault weapons might serve no purpose other than creating an illusion of progress toward peace.
“With more than 350 million guns in circulation in the United States, I’m skeptical that gun regulations will do much of anything to reduce violence,” Ponnuru said.
Georgia Sheriff Joe Chapman, a pro-life Southern Baptist, worries that gun-control legislation, taken too far, would discourage or forbid law-abiding citizens from owning the guns they need to defend themselves.
Chapman responded to the scene of a January burglary in which Melinda Herman, the mother of young twins, shot an intruder five times with a .38-caliber handgun — the type of weapon some gun-control advocates would ban. The suspect, whom Herman shot when he entered an attic room in which she and her children hid, remained on life support as of Jan. 30.
“There is no question that this burglary could have turned into a triple homicide, involving children, if she had not shot him,” Chapman told the Register. “Too often, I show up at these crimes, and it’s the aggressor who has done the shooting, injuring or killing innocent parties.”
El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, a Catholic who serves the most-populous county in Colorado, believes any move in the direction of gun control favors the interests of criminals who do not obey laws.
Maketa was sheriff when a gunman, armed with more than 1,000 rounds, entered the New Life evangelical mega church in Colorado Springs with a plan to shoot up the arena. He killed two people in the parking lot before an armed congregant, Jeanne Assam, drew her concealed handgun and stopped him. The killer took his life before authorities arrived.
Maketa has offered to train teachers to use handguns and says gun-free zones around schools facilitate the killings of children.
“We have turned schools into death zones,” Maketa said. “Criminals know that no one in or near a school has the firepower to stop them. That’s what gun control accomplishes.”
Maketa has licensed more than 22,000 residents to carry concealed guns in a county of 623,000 people. None had been arrested on a violent gun crime charge as of the Register’s Jan. 29 interview.
“Those who commit crimes with guns — any kind of guns — are criminals who don’t obey gun laws,” Maketa said. “We had a serial rapist who was preying on senior citizens for about five months. When he broke through the door of [the home of] an elderly lady, she shot him with a 12-guage shotgun, and we immediately apprehended him. It is not uncommon for citizens to successfully defend innocent lives with guns.”
Anecdotal Accounts
Though Father Nangle signed the statement urging more gun control, he understands the arguments of staunch gun-rights advocates.
“I went home to Boston talking about gun control, and a young cousin told me about a guy who came after him with a shotgun,” Father Nangle said. “It ended peacefully, but my cousin said he sure wished he had been armed that day. I get all of that, but I still think we need to move in the direction of fewer guns.”
Father Nangle works in the same diocese as Father Michael Duesterhaus, parochial vicar at Our Lady of Angels Church in Woodbridge, Va.
Father Duesterhaus, in an interview for another story, told the Register of the morning he shot an intruder who broke into the rectory of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale, Va., in 1993. Father Duesterhaus, believing the intruder would harm elderly priests in the home, shot the man with his 9mm semiautomatic handgun. The burglar ran away injured, and authorities arrested him.
Though he understands the perspectives of Catholics who arm themselves, Father Nangle is more influenced by a different incident. Back in the 1990s, fellow Franciscan friars in northern New Jersey were sipping scotch when a burglar broke into the friary.
“The intruder thought they had money from the collection plate, and he wanted it,” Father Nangle recalls. “The friars invited him to sit down and join them for a drink. The bad guy took them up on it. After a bit, they suggested he sample a better bottle of scotch they had on hand.”
“Eventually, the police showed up, and everything ended peacefully,” Father Nangle said. "That’s the story I prefer to hear.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Colorado.
John Zmirak: We Are All Islamists Now
Benjamin Wiker: The Church and the (Secular) State
Comments
Post a Comment
I’d prefer to hear Fr. Namgle’s type of story, too.As much as I believe in the right to bear arms, I also believe in trying to find a peaceful solution first.Lethal force should be a very last resort.But in our present world it still needs to be an option available for self defense.
Firearms put wildgame in the freezer for many folk. Hunters donate deermeat to food banks.Rural people (like me) need to protect livestock from predators & family from venomous snakes & rabid animals.
93% of gun-related crimes involve guns obtained illegally (black market, stolen, etc.). Only 7% involve guns obtained legally. Citizens who go to a store, undergo a criminal background check, have a gun registered to their name, etc. usually aren’t the kind of people who start killing people. It’s important to keep that in mind when crafting restrictive gun laws on the legal sale of firearms.
I am sick of phony innocence and charity at the expense of others. Pious hypocrites ‘thoughtfully’ give away other people’s money, freedoms, security and rights. Is this Catholic teaching? To give away your fellow Americans jobs to illegal immigrants and law-breakers and to take away the constitutional rights of the mass of law-abiding people.
I am a pro-life Catholic and owner of several hunting guns and I am not against gun ownership. However, I do believe its time to re-think the proper place of guns in our country (which, is not to say their total ban or control). In addition, I participate in the annual March for Life in D.C.; I must, however, take some issue with Mr.Ponnuru’s statement,“With more than 350 million guns in circulation in the United States, I’m skeptical that gun regulations will do much of anything to reduce violence,”, as the same thing might be said about Abortion, “With more than ($1.2 million abortions each year)in the United States,I’m skeptical that (pro-life activities such as March for Life, etc.) will do much of anything to reduce(abortions).”; The sheer magnitude of a problem should never be a deterrent to taking a stand against any adverse societal crisis such as gun violence or abortion, or attacks on marriage, etc.
With respect and charity to my brothers and sisters who have a problem with guns, I would recommend they read John Lott’s stupendous study on the matter, ‘More Guns, Less Crime’.
There will be guns on “the streets” no matter what, but the more law-abiding citizens own firearms, the safer our society will be.
The gun lobby and abortion lobby share the same paranoia that any limitation on their consitutional right to kill when they deem necessary is going to lead to the complete eradication of their constitutional freedoms. The U.S. is the only western democracy with this mania for guns and we are at top of the chart—by far—in our gun-related homicides. This doesn’t mean other democracies are “better” than we are in every respect, but it does mean that political freedom and lack of access to guns can happily exist together. The NRA, by stoking irrational fears of “tyranny” if guns are outlawed has hoodwinked a generation of well-meaning Christians. As Catholics, we can do better.
This is what I call balanced journalism. There is a concerted effort here to look at both sides of the issue, and frank acknowledgement that the people on both sides of the issue are acting in good faith and have arrived at their positions through reason and with good conscience. Well done, and more of this, please.
I agree with the Sheriff Maketa. The church needs to preach more about the evils of abortion and the salvation of souls. I’m holding on to my religion and my husband’s guns.
There is no one who is not in favor of gun control. A gun out of control is an accident waiting to happen. Let’s be honest with our words: the “gun control” people really want to eliminate guns, at least guns in the hands of civilians. If Fr. Joseph Nangle is really suggesting that Obama’s bodyguards not have guns, but maybe only boxing gloves, it is a fair if impractical suggestion. Somehow I think Fr. Nangle really wants the government armed to the teeth and citizens with no arms at all. That is a different story, and prudence informed by history argues against it.
Curious what happens to Catholics if Pope finds reason to add to catechism and: a)bans firearms, or; b) promotes them like Wayne LaPierre.
Respecting father’s ‘in persona christi’ reality…we is a fruit cake!
Wayne,
That is the most horrible parish i have ever been to in Virginia ” Our Lady Queen of Peace”. My views i expressed somewhere else on this parish…
I came to US in the fall of 2009 from Kerala India. Being raised in Kerala Catholic family, i wanted to attend Mass on Sundays. It was difficult as i did not have a car and the nearest Catholic church was 20 minutes walk as per Google. I walked getting inspired by Dominic Savio who used to walk for Mass even in cold weather. Reached this church called ” Our Lady Queen of Peace” in Arlington. It was a total new experience for me. I felt that Christ and his sacrifice was so mocked in this church, my heart so heavy it became that i cried. I asked Jesus, how can u stand this profanation. He was not given any importance at all, but mocked more than his Roman prosecutors.
I stopped going to Mass, absence continued may be for three months; i later happned to know about a Tridentine Mass in Our Lady Mother of God in DC. It was one hour commute for me by metro bus and train. Gave it a chance. Oh how wonderful is Jesus adored here. I even noticed every body bowed at the Holy name of “Jesus” was pronounced. How wonderful, how different,how much more honour to God i wondered. Two churches with Mother Mary’s name so different. Now i serve Tridentine Mass (Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ for teaching me to honour and love him more). Being a non american i did not know why there were such a difference. Now i attend St Ritas at Alexandria and Mother of God DC. Both are quite traditional parishes and have Masses ad orientem. Before coming to USA, i disliked the ad orientem Mass of Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara; but now i am well educated and know that is the norm. A big thank you to the liberal “Our Lady Queen of Peace” for making me a Tridentine/NO ad orientem lover.
Wayne,
That is the most horrible parish i have ever been to in Virginia ” Our Lady Queen of Peace”. My views as i expressed somewhere else on this parish…
I came to US in the fall of 2009 from Kerala India. Being raised in Kerala Catholic family, i wanted to attend Mass on Sundays. It was difficult as i did not have a car and the nearest Catholic church was 20 minutes walk as per Google. I walked getting inspired by Dominic Savio who used to walk for Mass even in cold weather. Reached this church called ” Our Lady Queen of Peace” in Arlington. It was a total new experience for me. I felt that Christ and his sacrifice was so mocked in this church, my heart so heavy it became that i cried. I asked Jesus, how can u stand this profanation. He was not given any importance at all, but mocked more than his Roman prosecutors.
I stopped going to Mass, absence continued may be for three months; i later happned to know about a Tridentine Mass in Our Lady Mother of God in DC. It was one hour commute for me by metro bus and train. Gave it a chance. Oh how wonderful is Jesus adored here. I even noticed every body bowed at the Holy name of “Jesus” was pronounced. How wonderful, how different,how much more honour to God i wondered. Two churches with Mother Mary’s name so different. Now i serve Tridentine Mass (Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ for teaching me to honour and love him more). Being a non american i did not know why there were such a difference. Now i attend St Ritas at Alexandria and Mother of God DC. Both are quite traditional parishes and have Masses ad orientem. Before coming to USA, i disliked the ad orientem Mass of Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara; but now i am well educated and know that is the norm. A big thank you to the liberal “Our Lady Queen of Peace” for making me a Tridentine/NO ad orientem lover.
The right to bear arms protected by the 2nd Amendment when it was written referred to what was used at the time…flintlock pistols, single shot weapons, cannons, ( I don’t think home owners were privy to owning cannons.) And look where we are today….weaponry has become sophisticated, more deadly, arsonals that just do not maim, they are meant to be used for killing and killing many. (I have no problem with gun ownership to defend oneself or family. I personally do not own a gun and I do not think I would be even capable of killing someone, even to defend my own life…that is just me.)
If this country were like Switzerland (correct me if I am mistaken)where one has to own a gun, it would be like the HHS Mandate..“you will comply and pay for abortion pills, contraception..this is your arsonal…they kill.” Funny. These drugs have only been around for X amount of years. Now we are told years later we don’t have a choice; we have to provide the means to kill.
The pharmacist who studied years ago, practiced pharmacy was never forced to do something against his/her will. But when these drugs became a pharmacutical, and the pharmacist has a conscience, now everyone screams, “You are a pharmacist. It is your job to dispense it!”
So we either keep on making leathal weapons, which many want to own, just like we keep making leathal drugs to kill the unborn and sometimes even the mothers who take them.
Or, we should put limitations on who should own “leathal” guns, and we should allow Freedom of Conscience for those who are being told they have to pay for leathal drugs of mass destruction on innocent lives to opt out…
Better yet, let us ban them both!
The ending anecdote is Irrelevant vis a vis armed felons who murder….like the rapist murderers who destroyed the Petit family in a home invasion in Connecticut. A gun was needed there and three women might be alive today had the father had one ready….two young girls who never lived to marry and have children….one of whose last memory was being raped and burned to death…just after going to church. I tracked and choked out a guy who broke into my house. He threatened to return with a pistol. We are well armed and motion detector alert at night. I often pray for his salvation and I’ll blast him with a shotgun Instantly in the heart if he returns with a pistol….death alone stops the other person’s trigger finger. Police took forever to respond….and the supreme court ruled they are not responsible for protecting us before the fact. Shotguns by the way are safer for neighbors thru quick dissipation of lethality over distance but are more lethal against the nearby criminal.
I am a Pro-life Catholic husband and father of four young children. I have participated in the march for life, and I am also a gun owner. I believe it is not only my right but it is my responsibility to carry a concealed gun in case I should need it to defend myself or my family. God has entrusted me with a wonderful family and I am not going to allow evil to take any of them from me without a fight.
In my opinion this is a subject that is divided into the same two camps we always have in the Catholic church today, the social justice crowd and the traditional Catholics.
Sure. But in the States it’ll take an amendment to the Constitution.
Andy,
What do you mean by “lack of access to guns?” That’s just what many folk are fearing right now.Perhaps you meant something different?
Thanks.
I like a LOT of guns around and lots of ammo and lots of ex-military guys with weapons experience (and often conservative values) and the more dangerous the weapons they have the better. Why? So the Social Engineer Elites will think twice as they make their repulsive plans. No other reason.
I am writing from Canada. We had a gun registry here, it does not work, and it was rejected by most Canadians. There was less than 30% compliance with the law, and otherwise law abiding citizens were made instant criminals by not complying, which was most of the people in rural and small town Canada.
It took us 20 years to finally get rid of the unjust gun control laws in Canada. Do not let your law makers make the same stupid mistakes that the Liberal Party made in Canada: it wastes money, it costs lives, and puts the law itself into disrepute. Some things we should not compromise on, stick to your guns.
David Beresford, PhD, Current Editor of Catholic Insight Magazine.
David Beresford,
Thanks for your comments. I didn’t know that about Canada.
Kathleen: Regarding my “lack of access” comment, I mean that people’s fears of tyranny are wildly inflated, stoked up by the NRA. No one, including President Obama, is seriously advocating to ban or round up all guns. The wildly inflated fear of a remote evil—tyranny—is preventing us from dealing with a very close evil—gun violence. If we banned assault weapons, we would keep our political freedoms; if we banned high capacity magazines, we’d keep our political freedoms. Political freedom can co-exist with no guns at all, as evidence by most of western Europe, Scandinavia and Japan. The big lie of the NRA is that our political freedom hangs by a slender thread and that the only thing protecting us from tryanny is an absolutist reading of the Second Amendment. It’s a truly kooky worldview, and very un-Catholic.
Many American’s have lost trust and confidence in their own government. That’s on reason why we are seeing a spike in gun ownership. Can you blame them? Look at the legacy of the US in recent years. Endless wars,unemployment,Abuses in the DHS and the NSA,Presidential directives that could limit our freedoms. The list goes on and on. Be very cautious when putting your trust in any government. Remember they are supposed to work for us.Not the other way around.
I’m not buying the gun control legislation Father Nagle wants to push.
Unlike politicians the Second Amendment is non negotiable.
Thou shalt not Kill. From this article: “There is no clear Church teaching on this,” Father Nangle said. “One can be 100% pro-life while owning a gun, for the purpose of defending life, for sure. There are no easy answers for Catholics on this issue.” There is for this catholic, my conservative viewpoint is its not wrong to own guns. It is wrong to Kill
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/catholics-and-the-question-of-gun-ownership/#ixzz2Kb1w84Td
I also participated in the 2013 march for life in Washington D.C. and am a firm believer in the Second Ammendment to our constitution. That ammendment was put in to enable citizens as a last resort to protect themselves and their country from ever having to fear a tyranical government imposing its wishes on the population. The argument of weapons being too destructive for the general population to be allowed to possess holds no water in this context. Good moral citizens should be allowed to possess weapons equivalent to what a tyranical government would use against them. The key issue here is the moral formation of the individual. When a society promotes atrocities such as the killing of innocent human life in the womb perhaps individual ownership of any weapons by a person with this mindset should not be allowed. No gun ever loaded itself and then set out to kill anyone. The gun needs a person with a desire to do harm and no respect for life in order to be a threat. Simply disarming the general public will only make it easier for those with no respect for life to carry out their wishes on a disarmed public or worse yet, for a morally bankrupt government to force it’s will on a disarmed nation. If you think this is impossible just look to Germany in the 1930s and 40s. An old German freind of mine warned never to let the government take away the guns from the citizens. He told me this was the first step used by the Nazis to gain the control they needed to take over Germany and turn the nation that gave us Bach and Beethoven into the monster it became in the late 1930s. The most critical issue is not gun control but proper moral upbringing.
First: Fr. Nangle does not speak for the Church, he is a parish priest and his thoughts on gun control do not reflect either the teaching of the Magisterium or Church Tradition. He has a past of supporting those that violate the teachings of the Church (Leadership Conference of Women Religious. He has been arrested in the US Capitol for protesting in support of socialist issues. If he were in a diocese with a stronger backboned bishop, he would have been censured and silenced long ago.
Second: The USCCB does not dictate Catholic Doctrine. It has the legitimate right to change doctrine as much as a group of golfers in the bar after 18 holes.
Third: Many of these liberal clergy have been taking the 30 pieces silver from government so long for their pet projects that they are cowardly and unwilling to truly stand up for church teachings, i.e. sodomy, abortion, artificial contraception, socialism. Many stood by and hid the abomination of sexual assault on children, the least of us, did nothing or abetted the deviants and those that raised the alarm were punished.
Fourth: God created Natural Law before the Church and there is no teaching of the Church that violates this. It is the Natural right of all to secure their life from the predation of those who intend evil. It may be laudable for someone to turn the cheek and forgive his transgressors, it is an entirely different thing to force the innocent to suffer evil due to clerical naivety.
There IS definitive Church teaching on the use of guns and gun control!
Public authorities DO have a right to regulate “The production and the sale of arms.” ( http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2316.htm )
But this does not imply that they have the right to take guns away from people, by arbitrary regulation of gun ownership. In fact, people sometimes have a right to “armed resistance,” under certain circumstances. ( http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html#The right to resist )
If people might have a right to armed resistance in the future, then they would naturally resist having their arms taken away beforehand. The conditions necessary for armed resistance are summarized in CCC 2243. (http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2243.htm)
In light of this teaching, I think that the question that we need to address today is this: Is it even possible, in the present day and age, to meet all the requirements for armed resistance, since governments have attack drones, etc. at their disposal? If resistance in the modern day would be futile, then there would be no “well-founded hope of success” and therefore, no “right to armed resistance,” and no inherent right to bear arms. But if there would be “hope,” from a military standpoint, then the people must not give up their arms.
I am afraid to say this, but we must turn to the analysis of a military-specialist concerning a forseeable, but very undesireable senario of a second Civil War in America, in order to reach a clear conclusion on the gun debate from these teachings of the Catholic Church.
If there were a second American Civil War, would there be hope that the side embracing “objective moral truth” could overcome the side embracing the “dictatorship of relativism,” and re-establish a peaceful society based on virtue? If yes, then we should hold on to our guns. If no, then we should let go of the Second Amendment.
CCC 2242 http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2242.htm
2242 The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” “We must obey God rather than men”:
When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within the limits of the natural law and the Law of the Gospel.
Right now in this country, Roman Catholic institutions and business owners are under direct attack for our beliefs and practices from our government. History has proven that the registration and removal of firearms from a civilian population of a nation will only embolden a tyrant further.
As this country is likely heading for at least a monetary collapse and the civil disorder that follows, it would be objectively immoral for the head of a household to comply with an immoral law that’s purpose is not civil order, but to disarm the populace and leave his family without the means of defense of life and limb in troubled times. It is praiseworthy to turn the cheek, it is dereliction of my duties as a father and husband to force my wife and children to.
There are already laws in place that forbid the ownership of firearms by criminals and the insane. Mortars, bazookas, rocket propelled grenades, etc. are not legal for purchase by the citizenry. Explosives, automatic weapons require extensive background checks and licensing. The state already controls arms, the problem is societal violence not weapons.
Criminals will always do what is illegal. Banning defensive firearms will only hurt the innocent and embolden the evil. Those that want to ban the inanimate object also fail to punish those that commit the crimes because of their weak willed sense of justice in failing to keep the violent and insane out of society. Every day in America, 14 people will be murdered, 48 women raped and 578 robbed by convicted criminals on parole or early release from prison.
England now has twice as many homicides with firearms as it did before adopting its repressive laws, yet its politicians have responded to rising crime by further restricting rifles and shotguns. During the past dozen years, handgun-related robbery has risen 200% in Britain.
Before someone goes and says “such and such is not a defensive weapon”, how do they know? As a Marine, I have fired almost every firearm available for portable use in the US military. What is available for civilian use, I would not want to take to war as an offensive weapon facing automatic arms fire. However in troubled times as a civilian I would feel much safer with a Rosary in one hand and an AR15 in the other.
Pray as though everything depends on God. And work as if everything depends on you. - St. Augustine
As a former police and military officer, the proudest part of my service is that I never had to shoot anyone. After my service, I continue to use firearms for hunting, collecting, target competitions and plinking. I still pray each night I never have to use one to defend my family.
Catholics who are gun owners [a likely 25 million plus in the US based on the 80 million estimated gun owners and Catholic demographics] should be aware that they are not obligated to agree with, support or obey recent statements made by some Catholic Bishops on President Obama’s call for “gun control.” This is because these statements do
not invoke , what the Church considers an “intrinsic evil” (which Catholics are obligated to oppose), but instead a “prudential judgment” (in which Catholics may disagree).
These and all Catholics should reference “Moral Principles for Catholic Voters, p. 2 as an example:
“Catholics may even have differing judgments on the state’s use of the death penalty or the decision to wage a just war. The morality of such questions lies not in what is done (the moral object), but in the motive and circumstances. Therefore, because these prudential judgments do not involve a direct choice of something evil, and take into consideration various goods, it is possible for Catholic voters to arrive at different, even opposing judgments.”
We can see this is a “prudential judgment” since the fact of the matter is that guns and other weapons are morally neutral. In our country, we have 60-80 million lawful gun owners in this country who have opted to not use them for crime but for the good of the community, family and state. (IF all gun ownership led to evil acts, this would be an intrinsic evil, but it is not).
Additionally, the bishops should recognize this as a divide and conquer tactic by the Culture of Death. You see, if you examine all of the pro-firearm politicians, you will see most of them are pro-life. And most of the Culture of Death politicians support disarming (gun control) the public.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
The time period for commenting on this article has expired.