The Friends of Franz Jägerstätter peace group want their message of
nonviolence to take root with U.S. Catholics. It may be a challenge,
they admit, but they've turned their focus to what they hope is a more
sympathetic group: young Christians.
"I'd love to convert all the bishops, but I don't think that is going
to happen," Michael Baxter, a theology and ethics professor at DePaul
University in Chicago, said in a conference call with reporters. "Yet I
know there are a lot of young people who will be moved by it."
Friends of Franz met this weekend in upstate New York and welcomed a
special guest: Maria Jägerstätter, daughter of the group's namesake.
Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian Catholic farmer executed for refusing to
serve in Hitler's army, was declared a martyr by Pope Benedict XVI in
June 2007 and was beatified by the church in October of the same year.
The Franz Jägerstätter People For Breaking the Silence, or Friends of
Franz, has members throughout the United States and Europe who speak
out against violence and war because, according to the group, silence on
the issue is a form of participation.
The 25 members in the United States have been lobbying the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops to more outspoken against militarism and
have organized Lenten periods of prayer, fast and reflection.
In a conference call Sept. 27, group members discussed the need for
their message to be heard, the encouraging climate Pope Francis has
spurred in today's church, and how they hope to seize the moment and get
their message out.
Their primary goal is to ensure Jägerstätter's story is heard by as
many Catholics as possible, which they hope will turn the tide against
militarism in the United States.
"It seems to me probably the most powerful thing to do to change
people's hearts and minds is simply to tell this story as best we can,"
Baxter said.
Jägerstätter was an ordinary Austrian farmer when Hitler's army
marched into his country in 1938. After the invasion, Jägerstätter, who
was married with three children, was to be drafted in Germany's army.
Believing the war unjust and incompatible with his Catholic faith, he
refused conscription.
His refusal cost him dearly: After months in a
German prison, Jägerstätter was beheaded in 1943.
For years, the details of Jägerstätter's life went unnoticed. Maria,
his own daughter, said she did not know her father's story was "special"
until years after he died.
After the details of his life were uncovered, Jägerstätter was beatified on Oct. 26, 2007.
Members of the Friends of Franz say his story deserves close study
among Catholics because his decision to refuse military service was
rooted in faith.
"If we tell the story of Jägerstätter, it has to be the whole story,"
said Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, a Melkite priest and longtime
pacifist. Jägerstätter's "morality came out of a spirituality that is
directly related to the understanding of God through Jesus Christ."
The spirituality that drove Jägerstätter to take a stand against an
unjust war is largely absent from the U.S. Catholic church, according to
the group. There's hope among them, however, that Pope Francis' shift
in tone will change this.
"We feel that this is a major turning point but hope we are not
disappointed," said Jack Gilroy, a member of Pax Christi and Friends of
Franz. The Friends of Franz want to see more action from the U.S.
bishops to show they share the pope's sentiment.
"[The bishops] make it sound like they are on the same page as the
pope when they haven't been for 20 years," Gilroy said. He said his
group would like to see from the bishops an "absolute statement that
faith and violence are incompatible."
Besides a statement, the group has a number of suggestions to more
fully align the U.S. Catholic church with Jägerstätter's tradition of
nonviolence. For starters, "get the junior ROTC out of Catholic high
schools," McCarthy said.
Other members say there is no need for an Archdiocese for the
Military Services or special collections that fund the archdiocese.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services was created in 1985 to
provide Catholic pastoral ministry to members of the U.S. armed forces
and their families. While military chaplains are themselves members of
the armed forces and receive salaries from their branches of service,
the military archdiocese is not part of the military.
Last year, the
U.S. bishops' conference approved a national collection to aid the
military archdiocese.
The collection will be taken up for the first time
Nov. 9-10, the weekend before Veterans Day, and repeated every three
years.
Friends of Franz want to make Jägerstätter's story resonate with lay
Catholics. Members of the group have written plays in an attempt to
reach a wider audience. One of the plays, "The Predator," is an effort
to educate the public about drone warfare. It's their hope the play will
be performed on Catholic college campuses.
"We have to think what we can do in terms of going into high schools
and speaking at college campuses," Baxter said. "We have the power to do
it ourselves in the same way Dorothy [Day] started the Catholic Worker
movement. We have to be willing to organize."
It's a tactic that's worked in the past.
McCarthy said Jägerstätter's story had a profound effect on students
at the University of Notre Dame during the Vietnam War. As a professor,
McCarthy invited Gordon Zahn, the man who uncovered Jägerstätter's
story, to speak to his students.
The students related to Jägerstätter's
story because he was driven by his faith to take a heroic stand,
McCarthy said.
"It made an impression," McCarthy said. "I'm sure students applied to be conscientious objectors after it."