O'Connor: The Senior Conservative by Dick O'Connor
 

PAX CHRISTI

888WebToday  December 29, 2001  Dick O'Connor
 

There is a movement within the Roman Catholic Church, which borders on heresy.  It is the Pax Christi movement and the members are composed of those who want to eliminate the death penalty.  Members also do not believe in protecting our country, and they don't believe in vengeance.  The director of this group has signed a petition along with other Catholic dissidents, that calls for the cessation of bombing or any other aggressive action in Afghanistan. He states that the use of violence to protect ourselves and punish our enemies is against the teachings of the Bible.  He does not say how he became such an expert in the Vulgate edition!

Here in Illinois, the Pax Christi movement has organized a Public Relations campaign to influence the outcome and sentencing of a mother before her trial began.  The mother, Marilyn Lemak, was later convicted of first degree murder of her three children by smothering them to death after giving them sedatives.  One by one, she deprived them of oxygen until they stopped struggling.  One by one.

Pax Christi is now engaged in candlelight marches, prayer vigils, public meetings, etc. to stop the judge from mandating the death penalty.  Neither I, nor anyone else that I know would want to make the determination of whether or not to prescribe the death penalty.  By the same token, the judge who has to impose the sentence should not be subject to undeserved pressure simply because of the selfish motives of a splinter group of one of the country's respected religions.

It is an affront to the Catholic Church to decide that the rules must be changed, that the death penalty no longer applies, and that nations can no longer defend themselves or punish their attackers.  It is an affront to tell the bishops how to govern their parishes.  It is an affront to defy the teachings of the Vatican and the Pope.  It becomes heretical when the group tries to enlist the ordinary parishioners to agitate and promote disobedience publicly.  There are channels within the church to take up such disagreements, but there is no room for heresy.  We can be certain that most of these liberal Catholics are also dedicated to ordaining females as priests.

The point is this: No matter how beautiful the name you adopt, (Pax Christi translates to "Peace of Christ"), if you adopt the name for selfish, nefarious purposes, you are doing the work of Satan.  Everyone in the United States should be aware of Pax Christi and realize what is behind it, both nationally (as in the renouncing of violence for protection and for punishment of our enemies) and locally (as in the very selfish public relations campaign against the death penalty).
 

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