A nice article that John Anderson may appreciate:
The Emperor and the Peasant
by Joshua Snyder
by Joshua Snyder
DIGG THIS
For my fellow Catholics on what Bill Kauffman called the "peace-and-
love left wing of paleoconservatism," no two beatifications have done
more for our faith in recent years than those of Blessed Charles of
Austria and Blessed Franz J=E4gerst=E4tter.
At first glance the two Austrian holy men couldn't seem to be more
different. His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, descendant of
Holy Roman emperors, died in poverty and exile on the island of
Madeira, ****tugal on April 1, 1921. His compatriot was a small farmer,
the illegitimate son of peasants, who was beheaded in Brandenburg,
Germany on August 9, 1943. Indeed, the emperor and the peasant remind
us that in The Catholic Faith, in the words of the Apostle, "There is
neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is
neither male nor female" (Epistle Of Saint Paul To The Galatians, III,
28).
Yet, however different their backgrounds were, the two beatified
Austrians speak from Heaven with the same thunderous voice for peace,
if not near-pacifism, in this day and age of war and rumors of war.
To the young Karl Franz Josef Ludwig Hubert Georg Maria von Habsburg-
Lothringen, Pope Saint Pius X bestowed this prophetic blessing: "I
bless Archduke Charles, who will be the future Emperor of Austria and
will help lead his countries and peoples to great honor and many
blessings - but this will not become obvious until after his death."
Blessed Karl's reign began at the end of 1916, when the Great War was
already nearing in its third bloody year. He immediately entered into
secret peace negotiations with France. He was the only European leader
to sup****t the peace efforts of Pope Benedict XV, who "maintained the
Vatican as politically neutral throughout the war, working with both
sides for peace, and sup****ting widows, orphans, the wounded,
prisoners, and refugees."
Blessed Karl's tireless peace efforts were ignored and he and his
empire were crushed by Woodrow Wilson's crusade to make the world safe
for democracy. Indeed, the religious fanatic who then sat in the White
House had a personal and visceral hatred of the saintly emperor. In
his recent article An Inconvenient Miracle, John Zmirak, re****ting
that "the Catholic Church has recognized the final miracle required to
make a saint of one of Wilson's greatest enemies," also reminded us of
the following:
It's rarely remembered now, but Woodrow Wilson set as one of the
primary war aims of the U.S. as she entered (thanks to his careful
maneuvering) World War I the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy. As a multi-ethnic state based not on 19th century
nationalism but ancient dynastic loyalty cemented by a majority
Catholic faith, it offended his modern notions of what should
constitute a country--and as a good Princeton academic, who was in
addition convinced that he personally embodied the Will of God, Wilson
knew that he could do better.
"Wilson's name continues its slow decline into disgrace," notes Mr.
Zmirak, of a man once sainted by American academia. Blessed Karl is
soon to be sainted by a much more ancient and venerable institution.
Blessed Karl was sent into exile and poverty. He twice attempted to
regain his throne, but abandoned the effort to avoid civil war. He
died of severe pneumonia in the company of his beloved Empress Zita
and their eight children.
(Among the children present on that sad day was Archduke Otto von
Habsburg, originator of this great political observation: "I am often
asked if I am a republican or a monarchist. I am neither, I am a
legitimist: I am for legitimate government. You could never have a
monarchy in Switzerland, and it would be asinine to imagine Spain as a
republic.")
Of the emperor-king, English author Herbert Vivian said, "Karl was a
great leader, a prince of peace, who wanted to save the world from a
year of war; a statesman with ideas to save his people from the
complicated problems of his empire; a king who loved his people, a
fearless man, a noble soul, distinguished, a saint from whose grave
blessings come."
"Emperor Karl is the only decent man to come out of the war in a
leader****p position, yet he was a saint and no one listened to him,"
said Anatole France. "He sincerely wanted peace, and therefore was
despised by the whole world. It was a wonderful chance that was
lost."
The war Blessed Karl tried so desperately to end claimed the life
Blessed Franz's father when the boy was ten years old. There were few
signs of his future greatness in his youth, which was spent like many
young men sowing his wild oats and busying himself with his beloved
motorcycle. After marriage and the birth of three daughters, he began
to take his religion seriously. A patriot, he was the only member of
his village to vote against the 1938 Anschluss, the annexation of his
native land by Nazi Germany. To the greeting "Heil Hitler" he never
responded with anything but "Pfui Hitler."
Like his namesake Saint Francis of Assisi, Blessed Franz was
ostracized by his fellow villagers. Both Francises were Holy Fools, in
that they refused to do the "respectable" thing that society demanded
of them. Blessed Franz was drafted into the German army but found he
could not in good conscience serve a r=E9gime he opposed with all his
soul. He deserted. He was court-martialed and sentenced to death.
Any speculation that he was motivated by cowardice or contrarian
peasant stubbornness is dispelled when one reads his writings from
prison. Awaiting the guillotine, Blessed Franz wrote, "I definitely
prefer to relinquish my rights under the Third Reich and thus make
sure of deserving the rights granted under the kingdom of God." Here
is another striking passage:
Just as those who believe in Nazism tell themselves that their
struggle is for survival, so must we, too, convince ourselves that our
struggle is for the eternal Kingdom. But with this difference: we need
no rifles or pistols for our battle but, instead, spiritual weapons...
Let us love our enemies, bless those who curse us, pray for those who
persecute us. For love will conquer and will endure for all eternity.
And happy are they who live and die in God's love.
On the morning of his execution, he wrote to his beloved wife
Franziska, who was present sixty-four yeas later at her husband's
beatification mass, the following words: "The heart of Jesus, the
heart of Mary and my heart are one, united for time and eternity."
After receiving "Last Rites" (Extreme Unction), Blessed Franz told the
priest, "I cannot and may not take an oath in favor of a government
that is fighting an unjust war." From this priest, Blessed Franz was
happy to learn of another Catholic priest who had recently been
martyred by the Nazis (there were 4000 of them by the war's end), and
he had always been charitable and maintained that his fellow
Catholics, laity and churchmen alike, who did not oppose Hitler simply
"were not given the grace" that he had received.
Like the saints of early Christian history (Saint Martin of Tours, a
Roman officer who renounced the sword, comes to mind), news of his
sanctity spread by word of mouth and his cultus grew. Twenty-one years
after his death, Gordon Zahn's biography, In Solitary Witness,
provided inspiration to those opposing the unjust war against
Vietnam.
"A week before George W. Bush arrived in Rome for their first
meeting," observed Frank Purcell in A Martyr for Peace, "Benedict XVI
put his signature to a do***ent proclaiming Franz J=E4gerst=E4tter a
martyr of the Church for refusing to serve in an unjust war, such as
Benedict and John Paul the Great insisted the Bush war against Iraq
has been from the beginning."
In declaring him a martyr, the Church clarified her Just War Doctrine.
Catholic neocon war apologists hinged their sup****t for the War on
Iraq on this single phrase: "The evaluation of these conditions for
moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have
responsibility for the common good." Official recognition of Blessed
Franz's witness, and well as clear statements by the popes, taught
that that line was not a trump card. The other criteria for a just
war, which are very strict, take absolute precedence.
Blesseds Karl and Franz were beatified by Pope John Paul II and Pope
Benedict XVI respectively. These two pontiffs have raised the
strongest and clearest voices of opposition against Mr. Bush's Wars.
In Pope John Paul II and the Iraq War, Austin Cline, an atheist,
admitted the following:
The most public and serious condemnations of the invasion of Iraq came
from Pope John Paul II and other top officials at the Vatican.
Catholic leaders did as much as they could to dissuade Britain and
America from their bellicose course of action, but to no avail.
In September of 2002, in the build up to the war, then-Cardinal
Ratzinger stated, "The concept of a 'preventive war' does not appear
in the Catechism of the Catholic Church." Then, in May of 2003, after
the start of the war, the future pope made this following remarkably
clear statement:
There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To
say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible
destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be
asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a
"just war."
This past Palm Sunday, the Holy Father issued an "appeal to the Iraqi
people, who for the past five years have borne the consequences of a
war that provoked the breakup of their civil and social life."
(Roma locuta est, causa finita est. Rome has spoken, the case is
closed.)
And the Pope may well be the last best chance for Iran to avoid
annihilation, as a Time Magazine article from last year, Iran's Secret
Weapon: The Pope, speculated: "According to several well-placed Rome
sources, Iranian officials are quietly laying the groundwork necessary
to turn to Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican diplomats for mediation
if the showdown with the United States should escalate toward a
military intervention."
Holy Mother Church is above and beyond politics, especially when it
comes to beatifications. Blessed Karl and Franz were made "heroes of
the faith" for their personal holiness, not for their political
positions. But the two are sometimes inseparable, as evidenced by
these words Blessed Franz wrote in prison: "It is always possible to
save one's own soul and perhaps some others as well by bearing
individual witness against evil."
And we can see the Church's beatifications as being politically
providential. It is hard not to see in Blessed Karl's beatification
and eventual canonization the rejection of the Wilsonian
interventionism that still guides American foreign policy, carried out
in the name of "self-determination by ethnic groups," "the spread of
democracy," and "intervention to help create peace and/or spread
freedom." In Blessed Franz' beatification and by declaring him a
martyr, a "witness" who died for the Faith, the Church has affirmed
forever the primacy of conscience over State power.
Although I'd love to see the Holy Father do what this petition asks,
you will not find my name among the undersigned - Letter urges Pope to
protest Iraq war during US visit. Not only do I find unseemly the
politicking of an institution as august and venerable as the One Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church, which is only perverted by
anything reeking of democracy, but I also find such petitioning
utterly unnecessary. The popes have already spoken. And Blesseds Karl
and Franz bore and continue to bear witness in life, death, and in the
afterlife.
Orate pro nobis.
March 29, 2008
An American Catholic son-in-law of Korea, Joshua Snyder [send him
mail] lives with his wife and two children in Pohang, where he serves
as an assistant visiting professor of English at a science and
technology university. He blogs at The Western Con****ian.
Copyright (c) 2008 LewRockwell.com
---------------
I like Otto von Habsburg's "great political observation": "I am often
asked if I am a republican or a monarchist. I am neither, I am a
legitimist: I am for legitimate government. You could never have a
monarchy in Switzerland, and it would be asinine to imagine Spain as a
republic."
It explains why Putin works so well for Russia...
BM
|
