Opinion: A Pastor’s Cowardice
- pastorcorner
- Aug 16
- 4 min read
Opinion: A Pastor’s Cowardice
The first casualty of every war, as the saying goes, is truth.
August 16, 2025 Father Jerry J. Pokorsky The Dispatch 0Print
(Image: us.fotolia.com)
A couple of weeks back, I placed a commentary in the Pastor’s Bulletin Insert that caused a minor stir among parishioners. Based on evidence from Internet news reports, I argued that the Israeli indiscriminate attacks on Gazan civilians in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks violate the Fifth Commandment. I referenced the immorality of the indiscriminate killings in Hiroshima, Dresden, and even Vietnam. Some questioned my portrayal of the historical facts and my motives.
The first casualty of every war, as the saying goes, is truth. High school history books necessarily are abbreviated and somewhat cartoonish. It is far more instructive to listen to historical debates. But wars—and our opinions of wars — occur in real time, and we need to develop views in the moment. I think I have sufficient evidence to form an opinion. But I realize that the evidence that persuades me does not convince many Catholics.
What troubles me more is that Catholics can see the same evidence and rationalize murder with that awful slogan, “No moral equivalence!” As Catholics, we do not condone Viet Cong brutality when we acknowledge that the My Lai massacre is horrifying. We need not approve of Hamas terrorism when we abhor indiscriminate attacks on Gazans. We need not condone slavery when we deplore Sherman’s infamous Civil War march from Atlanta to the sea.
We can understand murderous revenge (which is increasingly glorified by Hollywood scriptwriters). But we must not condone it. The difference between just killing—whether in personal self-defense or national self-defense in war—and murderous acts like terrorism and genocide is as stark as the difference between heaven and hell.
Priests come and go. Many of my favorite and influential priests have long passed into obscurity. When I think of them, Winston Churchill’s witticism comes to mind: “He is a modest man with much to be modest about.” Except for the likes of, say, Fulton Sheen, the quip applies to most priests. Most priests come to sense the marginal value (in human terms) of their Sunday sermons.
I delight in every form of ethnicity. Along with writers such as Thomas Sowell, I notice ethnic (or, rather, tribal) traits, both positive and negative. I grew up on American and Jewish humor and enjoy ethnic humor in all its benign forms. I oppose expressions of tribal hatred and murder, regardless of ethnicity. So please cross alleged anti-Semitism off the motivational list because it confuses the issue. But maybe that’s the point of the smear.
A Pharisee is an elitist who takes the moral high ground and deigns to judge those dirty little people who do not measure up to his high standards. I realize I am capable of murderous revenge had I suffered the injustices we read about. As a young conservative man, I also favored nuking Japan to win the war. I was wrong. So I do not think I am a Pharisee, at least in this regard.
Some suggest it is easy for me to oppose mass murder. It is. And we are getting closer to my primary motivation. My opposition to the Israeli indiscriminate attacks on Gaza poses no threat to my reputation. Even those who strongly disagree with me in this parish are too nice to be nasty. I pay little or no penalty for my moral posturing, if that was my intention.
But here is my compulsion. I read the Gospels, and Church teaching informs me. The Commandments include, “Thou shalt not murder.” The Church teaches just war principles. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council teach that indiscriminate attacks on population centers are crimes against God and man. Like most Baby Boomers with dads in World War II, I favored the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because they were necessary to win the war.
However, my training as a Catholic priest called those American dogmas into question. I applied Church teaching to the assembled evidence, and Catholic logic prevailed.
My pay doesn’t depend on my political positions. I am not beholden to the military establishment, big business, or those who fund my political campaigns. My stock portfolio will not suffer. I will not lose radio listeners or TV viewers because I violate corporate advertising policies by criticizing Israel. I have no personal or financial risk in the application of the Fifth Commandment to the facts as I see them.
I will suffer no worldly penalty for opposing American funding of indiscriminate Israeli attacks on the Gazan population. It makes little difference whether I publicly oppose those terrible actions or if I remain silent. But based on the principles and facts, my conscience demands that I speak even if I know I will have little or no influence on anybody. But my silence will cost me my soul, and I’m afraid. So my core motivation in criticizing the military tactics of Israel (and the United States at Hiroshima) is cowardice: I fear the pains of hell.
On my Day of Judgment, as I stand before the good Lord, He will ask questions tailor-made for me. He will declare that He preserved me from all kinds of retribution in authentically proclaiming the Gospel. He will say my proclamation cost me nothing in blood or treasure. He will ask if I was faithful. Fear of God’s punishment may make me a coward, but cowardice in defense of salvation is no vice.
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword… Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Mt. 10:34-39)
++20 Ordinary Time Cycle C A Pastor’s Cowardice
The first casualty of every war, as the saying goes, is truth.
Comments