By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

The best thing American Catholics can do to support the men and women in the armed forces is pray for peace, said Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of the Archdiocese for the Military Services of the United States.

“The only way we’re going to get away without a war at this point is to pray,” said Archbishop O’Brien, as he prepared for a March 14 visit to St. Barnabas Parish on the South Side for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Family Liturgy. “That’s the first step. I think all our troops would benefit by not going to war.”

Parishes and individuals should also do everything they can to support the families, especially the children, of soldiers and sailors who have been deployed, he said. Having a parent—perhaps someone who serves in the National Guard or reserves—suddenly gone for a lengthy and indefinite time creates huge stresses on families.

And in the meantime and especially if we do invade, parishes can help by remembering their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers and friends who are in uniform during the prayers of the faithful and as intentions at Mass, he said.

Archbishop O’Brien’s archdiocese includes Catholics at 220 military installations in 29 countries, patients in 172 Veterans Administration hospitals and Catholic federal employees serving in 134 countries, along with the more than 1,000 full-time military chaplains who serve them. He will be joined at the March 14 liturgy by Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Jerome E. Listecki, a reserve chaplain and vicar to the military chaplains in the archdiocese, as well as a number of priests who are retired or reserve military chaplains.

He doesn’t think any of them are surprised to see anti-war demonstrations in the United States, or even to see Catholic religious leaders among the marchers. The freedom to demonstrate is one of the rights the servicemen and women have volunteered to uphold.

“I think we’re probably not surprised because we live in a free country,” said the archbishop, a native of the Bronx who was appointed to his position in 1997. “We saw a lot of demonstrations—some maybe more expressive—back in 1991 when we went to Kuwait. There was tremendous opposition to that at the time. We tend to forget that.”

Still, while church leaders from Pope John Paul II through local pastors advocate for peace, those who serve in a volunteer army are prepared to fight, the archbishop said.

“The church says the final decision lies with those who are constituted as leaders of the government,” Archbishop O’Brien said. “The church is not an expert in matters politic or in international diplomacy. We can call for peace and pray for peace, but there’s always the addendum that war is the last resort.”

One of the roles military chaplains fill—besides a ministry of presence to those in danger and support to military families—is to educate members of the armed services about the church’s teaching on when a war is just.

“The church has an obligation to set forth ethical guidelines, and also guidelines for what should be done or not done in a war,” the archbishop said. “One of the things chaplains do is explain the idea of a just war, and to explain that those who serve their country in the cause of peace are peacemakers.”