THE WANDERER, APRIL 26, 2007
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
So far this week the news is being made a little
south of Washington, at Virginia Tech, where a Korean
student went berserk and murdered 32 people, then killed
himself. It's being called "the worst mass murder in
American history" (not counting Waco, I guess).
Horrible as such incidents are, I wish we could let
them pass without affecting national grief over them, and
without our politicians and pundits assuming the roles of
pastors and "grief counselors." The grief belongs to the
victims' families, and nobody else should try to
appropriate it.
Yet President Bush, visiting the school the day
after these stunning crimes, spoke piously, wisely, and
without cant.
Revving Up
Now that the phony rape charges against those three
Duke lacrosse players have been dropped -- my, college
life (let's not forget Rutgers) is eventful these days!
-- will the Reverend Sharpton demand that their accuser
be fired from her job, like Don Imus?
Of course Sharpton himself is even worse than the
disgraced prosecutor in the Duke case, Mike Nifong. At
least Nifong was finally forced to apologize; Sharpton
still stands by the phony rape charges he made in the
Tawana Brawley case; and whereas Nifong may well be
disbarred and even prosecuted for a crime, the Rev is in
no imminent danger of being defrocked.
But his 15 minutes of fame may be over at last --
about 15 years too late.
Bush and the Catholic Neocons
Neoconservatives have been likened to skunks: They
can stink you up for a while, but in the end, everyone
knows the odor is theirs. This may somewhat limit the
harm they can do. They've made it hard to remember that
they have ever done any good.
For one subset of neocons I feel something like
pity: the Catholic neocons, many of whom I have known
personally. By supporting the Iraq war, they have allowed
themselves to be put into an awkward and compromising
position. We must ask bluntly, Do they really want to be
used against the Church and the Popes?
In his authorized biography of Pope John Paul II,
George Weigel criticizes His Holiness for his opposition
to both American wars against Iraq. I must say that it
would make me uneasy to have said such things about the
Pope, especially in the light of those wars' unhappy
results.
Another Catholic neocon, Michael Novak, has been
critical of both John Paul II and now Benedict XVI for
their views on the current Iraq war. In early 2003,
before the war had begun, after flying to Rome in a vain
effort to set the Vatican straight, Novak argued that
Saddam Hussein was capable of "devastating" London,
Paris, or Chicago and, invoking St. Augustine, that
Catholic principles of just warfare might well give the
United States a "moral obligation" to invade Iraq and
topple its government.
Lately Novak has scolded Benedict for his Easter
message saying that nothing good has come of the Iraq
war. He seems to equate Benedict with mere secular
European critics of this country. (For those who may
suspect I exaggerate, Novak's articles on these matters
can be found on NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE.) And in a long
interview in CRISIS magazine, which he founded, Novak
expounds on neoconservatism without mentioning the Iraq
war at all! It would seem he is in no mood to celebrate
the neocons' most famous achievement.
Can anyone seriously believe, or even imagine, that
Christ would blame these two Popes for urging peace? It
would be presumptuous enough to claim the Lord for
old-fashioned conservatism. But for neoconservatism?
The neocons argue ingeniously -- over-ingeniously,
it seems to me -- that the decision to go to war must be
referred to the "prudential judgment" of "legitimate
authorities." But that can hardly be the end of it. The
prudence and judgment, not to mention the morality, of
our authorities are precisely what millions of thoughtful
people have come to question; and those millions have
pre-eminently included the last two Popes and other
Catholics, laymen, clergymen, and hierarchs, who command
respect.
"Legitimate authorities" doesn't necessarily mean a
monarch, or a president; under the U.S. Constitution, it
also means Congress, which decides when to declare war,
and which may decide that it, or the president, has acted
imprudently. Congress and the people are moving into
alignment with the Popes and, yes, most Europeans on
this; and though in this respect we are all fallible,
still, as Samuel Johnson observed, "About things on which
the public thinks long it commonly attains to think
right."
That is the very voice of Christian common sense,
the consensus fidelium.
How many serious Christians originally had qualms
about the war, but over the past four years have become
persuaded of its wisdom and justice? Hasn't virtually all
the motion been in the opposite direction?
It's weird that so many Catholics are promoting
George W. Bush's fundamentalist Armageddon agenda. I
suspect that Bush's war policy has very little to do with
just war theory, considerations of prudence, or
St. Augustine, and everything to do with an occult and
fanatical eschatology he hasn't told the public about.
Patricia Buckley RIP
C.S. Lewis said of his friend Charles Williams that
when he died, it was the idea of death, not Williams,
that seemed to have changed. I felt almost that way when
I heard that Pat Buckley, Bill's wife, had died this week
at 80.
We'd known it was coming. I hadn't seen her in many
years, but I'd heard she'd been suffering the most
agonizing kind of arthritis. Unremitting torment. The end
was inevitable but still unbelievable.
Pat was the most forceful woman I ever knew, a tall,
striking, raucously funny lioness, intimidating (though
she didn't mean to be) until you got to know her. The
only child of the richest tycoon in Canada, she was that
rarity in America (see Tocqueville), a woman who never
had to please anyone. Oh, was she blunt! Feminists would
wither in her presence. But her fearlessness was a tonic.
You could see why Bill loved to play with her, the
lion-tamer who loved her wildness.
She and Bill were married for over half a century,
and their son Christopher is one of America's most
successful satirists. She bawled me out when I panned his
first book in her husband's magazine after all the other
reviewers had praised it. "Pat," I teased her, "NATIONAL
REVIEW was the only magazine with the guts to take that
book on." Bill roared with delight; trying to look stern
at my insolence, she smiled in spite of herself.
She dominated New York's high society, seeming to
run most of its charities. The gossip columnists doted on
her, despite the total lack of scandal in her life. That
city won't be the same now.
Eventual grief is the price of every love, so there
is no way I could offer Bill the consolation I wish him.
But then, that's what families are for.
+ + +
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