I was disturbed to pick up a copy of The Observer on Oct. 4 (the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who prayed, "Make me an instrument of Thy peace,") and see a front page article blandly treating the activities of the "Notre Dame Army ROTC."
There was no indication in the article, as there is no indication in the campus culture, that naming a batallion after Our Lady might be blasphemous. But what insanity, to honestly believe that the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps is under the guidance of Our Lady, who is known as the Queen of Peace!
What madness has fallen on the population of this University? How can people who are named with the name of Christ so simply dismiss all the words of Jesus in the Gospels and allow our brothers and sisters here to be taught to kill and, maybe worse, to be taught to order others to kill as well?
Do we think Jesus was exaggerating when he said, "Offer no resistance to injury?" Or that he was speaking in riddles when he said, "Those who live by the sword will die by it?" Or that he was smugly ironic when he ordered us to "love our enemies?"
I pray for all those currently enrolled in the ROTC program, that they will search the Scriptures and search their hearts, knowing that Christ is the end of the Law and the prophets, and turn from the path of violence on which they currently walk. I pray that they - that all of us - will instead walk in the way of the cross, which teaches us to take suffering upon ourselves instead of heaping sufferings upon others, even when to do so means our very lives, as it did for our Savior.
I pray for those who teach in the ROTC program and those who lead this university, that they will stop teaching us with false teachings that are so obviously contrary to the mind of Christ.
May God have mercy on us all, who are so used to living a life contrary to the divine teachings that quotations of scripture like those above seem ridiculous, subversive, irresponsible and dangerous.
And happy Feast of St. Francis, by the way.
Michael Schorschgraduate studentOct. 4
