As a veteran of the war in Iraq and student at Notre Dame, I read Michael Schorsch's Oct. 5 Letter to the Editor ("'War Culture' the wrong path") with obvious interest. I'll begin by saying that as a practicing Catholic I'm also fully aware of the Vatican's position concerning the shrinking nature of just war theory, and the idea that the use of force has relatively few justifiable applications. I also respect and support Michael's right to criticize our nation's military and the Notre Dame Reserve Officer Training Corps program.
That having been said, what naturally struck me concerning Schorsch's letter was a basic lack of respect for contrary viewpoints - something that I feel to be a hallmark of the Catholic faith. In using words like "ridiculous," "subversive" and "dangerous" to describe the viewpoints and life choices of our nation's service members appears patronizingly short sighted to say the very least. Schorsch then goes on to line up a few passages from the Bible and proceeds to shut the lid on our discussion with the image of a smug, contrite Jesus looking down on our ROTC program with obvious disdain. I'm quite certain that kind of vitriol is inconsistent with the Catholic faith I know.
Forget for the moment that his opinion ignores the often noble intentions and contributions of our men and women in uniform. Instead of using The Observer space to explore those contributions in depth, I'll simply offer a suggestion. Next time you feel the urge to boil a very complex issue of the Catholic faith down to a black in white contest in condescension, just skip the next ROTC article and hit the sports section - our win over Purdue was much more interesting than the ROTC FTX anyway.
Matt MorrisonGraduate Studentoff-campusOct. 5
