Monday, May 2, 2011

Hell's Population Increases By One


While not jubilant, I have to admit being pleased upon hearing of the execution of Osama bin Laden. Justice has been served to the monster who masterminded the deaths of over 3,000 American citizens. Countless human lives, manpower, and amounts of money have been sacrificed to force this despicable barbarian to accept responsibility for his evil. Whether the means justify the ends may be debated, and the world may or may not be a safer place, but one cannot deny that this man’s death brings some closure to that terrible, terrible day back in September of 2001.

As a Catholic whose trying (badly, it must be confessed) to follow the teachings of Christ as best as possible, to walk that “narrow way” without fail and without falling (which I do at least once a day), I cannot “celebrate” bin Laden’s death. But do not leap to any conclusions. I am glad he no longer has the pleasure and privilege of walking this earth.

Contrary to what you may hear out there, the Catholic Church does not forbid the death penalty. According to the Catechism, 2267:

Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

I have no doubt that were I in the same cave as bin Laden he would want me dead. I have no doubt that were he ever to have gotten hold of my little daughters, God forbid, he would kill them. Do you? So for that reason alone, I am relieved to know him dead by a massive overdose of lead. And though details are sketchy and still trickling in, it strikes me as typical that he met his death valiantly hiding behind a woman.

I have the fortune, I guess you could say, to be somewhat removed from the War on Terror. No one in my family serves in the armed forces, and no one is a first responder. I don’t come from a military family. The only person I do know who has served overseas is my childhood friend Karl. I’d like to publicly thank him, and the thousands of men and women who have served along with him and continue to do so, ready to do whatever it takes to keep me and my family safe at night. Thank you all, and great work! Truly great, great work!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am Catholic, but still have my own set of beliefs, and I am over the moon that they killed him. I only hope the reports that they washed his body and wrapped it in white cloth according to Muslim tradition before burying him at sea are NOT true. God knows, he didn't care one bit about the religious beliefs of the THOUSANDS of people he killed on 9/11/01, nor the thousands more he would have tried to kill, were he still alive. I wish he had been brought back to the center of NY for the families of the 9/11 victims to deal with, the coward. Shooting him in the head was just too humane! Do you think I feel strongly enough about the topic? -J

LE said...

If you are serious about following Christ, you can not rejoice in any man's death. The key word here is REJOICE. Or celebrate, exult, throw a party, whatever. That's the teaching handed down to us, and it ain't easy.

The human part of me thinks he's in hell, but the spiritual part has to hope that he isn't.

Such a belief has nothing whatsoever to do with the man's victims. I truly believe they received special dispensation on that terrible day.

And this still does not justify the use of torture by our government. Ends don't justify means. Can't do evil that good may come.