The following letters to the editor appear in the edition of Oct. 28, 2004. Letters appearing in this space do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arlington Catholic Herald or the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. The editor reserves the right to edit letters as necessary. There is no guarantee of publication. Send letters to: letters@catholicherald.com.

Masterpiece by Fr. Saunders

What a great article on "Leave Cell Phones at Home" by Father William Saunders (ACH 10/21/04). It was a masterpiece. Just think, if Father Saunders wrote a book on the subject, it would make the New York Times Best Seller list.

Charles F. McGuire
Arlington

Why Pray for Peace?

As a rule, I find myself in strong agreement with George Weigel's writings on the essence of what it is to be a Catholic. Furthermore, I myself have at times shared his frustration with those who would use the petitions of the faithful as a springboard for their own pet causes. Therefore, it is with some reluctance, yet also a strong sense of conviction, that I find myself replying to his essay "Lord, Please Don't Hear This Prayer" (ACH, 10/21/04, page 5). He describes his reluctance to pray for world leaders to "put aside their political differences and work for...peace," justifying his position with the statements "I don't believe that 'political differences'... define the fault-lines in world politics" and "it smacks of the psychobabble that has corrupted Catholic thinking."

This sense of conviction stems from a variety of reasons. First, as a highly astute political commentator, I find it hard to believe that Weigel is naive enough to confine his definition of "politics" to a simple matter of Republicans vs. Democrats. Furthermore, I doubt that he is unaware of the political dimensions of many of the issues he mentions.

I think there are greater dangers involved in Weigel's line of thought. To boycott prayers for peace is, in some sense, to deny the glory of God and wallow in the barbarism of man. Our God is a God of infinite power and might, who guides the hearts of kings like a watercourse and decides their destiny.

He has wrought miracles unconceived by human imagination, too sublime to be grasped by hope. To refuse to pray for peace on the grounds that such petitions are misconceived or "unreal" seems to be a denial of belief in His omnipotence and a cynical acceptance that we are quite on our own with regards to solving the ills of this world. One could even stretch this argument slightly and posit that such thinking helped us into the morass of Iraq, by deifying the efficacy of the sword at the expense of our faith in other means of resolution. The equivocal state of the broader war on terrorism could also be linked to such thinking.

Some might feel at this point that I have shown myself to be an idealist living in a dream, naive to the evils this world contains. I am a counterterrorism analyst by profession, and I am fully aware of the horrors that man can visit upon his brother. I am also aware that force is frequently the only viable solution to the problems in my field, with all the attendant moral pitfalls it entails. Yet I know in my heart that God is up there, and that He listens to our prayers, and that He works miracles of such power as to dwarf all the doings of man into insignificance. To deny God's power is to deny God.

In the film "The Mission," a saintly Jesuit played by Jeremy Irons attempts to dissuade a warlike member of his order from shedding blood in order to protect their flock from rapacious colonists. In a beautiful phrase, the priest states, "If might is right, then love has no place in the world. It may be so, it may be so. But I don't have the strength to live in a world like that." Truly, he speaks for me as well.

Ben Brandt
Arlington

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