Warring over military on campus

National Catholic Reporter, April 27, 2001 by ROBERT McCLORY

ROTC review brings out peace activists at Notre Dame

Standing along both sides of the walkway leading to the Loftus Center at the University of Notre Dame, they looked like an unorthodox honor guard. These 30 students, all members of the school's Pax Christi chapter, were informally attired in jeans and jackets or sweatshirts, and they held homemade wooden crosses.

In protest against the ROTC parade filing between them, the Pax Christi members had come to pray, to listen to brief talks and to sing. They sang about "speaking truth to power" and how "blessed are the peacemakers."

The demonstration marked an ongoing clash of Christian values over war and peace that dates to the earliest centuries of Christianity -- a clash that resulted in St. Augustine's principles of just war in the early fifth century, rationalizing the role of armies despite the pacifist teachings of Jesus.

In this latest emergence of the conflict, a seemingly endless array of young women and men, members of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at Notre Dame, all dressed in parade blue, olive or dazzling white, walked between lines of peace activists and entered the building. In stark contrast to the simple crosses Pax Christi members held, some ROTC members carried rifles, some flags, and some ceremonial swords. None spoke to Pax Christi members, and most looked straight ahead as if running (or walking) a gauntlet.

The Pax Christi group was protesting on this sunny afternoon, April 18, against the annual presidential review of all the university's ROTC cadets (341 members this year). Their disagreement ran along these lines:

* Notre Dame, the most heavily endowed Catholic educational institution in history, is overly friendly with and dependent on the Pentagon.

* Notre Dame president Fr. Edward "Monk" Malloy was about to give official approval to the ROTC program.

* ROTC students at the school are under no obligation to take courses on Catholic just war tradition or other ethical issues connected with the military.

"The Department of Defense has been given a carte blanche on this campus," said Michael Griffin, a leader of the Pax Christi chapter on campus. Griffin is a seminarian preparing to become a priest of the Holy Cross, the religious order that sponsors Notre Dame. "The university is failing utterly to assist those students in developing a Catholic conscience on war-related matters."

In a letter addressed to ROTC members and published in the school newspaper on the day of the presidential review, Pax Christi said, "You are being trained for the United States military, and this organization has consistently disregarded teachings of Jesus and of the church. Some of the historic examples: Pope Paul VI called the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki `a butchery, of untold proportions,' and Pope John Paul II prayed `never again war, an adventure without return, never again war, a spiral of death and violence' ... The blessing that occurs with this ceremony ... implies that the ROTC is -- at minimum -- in harmony with the mission of the Catholic church."

Too often, concluded the letter, the U.S. military has "fought on the side of injustice, against the poor and powerless."

The Pax Christi chapter had hoped to make a more dramatic presentation of its views than this brief interface at the Loftus Center door. The presidential review was originally scheduled to be held outdoors in a large, grassy area near the football stadium, punctuated with a military jet flyby. Griffin and his associates had planned to sit in cruciform and recite the rosary in the path of the parade, forcing marching cadets to walk around -- or over -- them.

But after school authorities learned about the plan, the site was shifted just two days before the event to the indoor arena where disruptions could more easily be controlled.

Dennis Moore, university director of public relations, cited unseasonably cold and rainy weather as the reason for the move. However, on review day, there was scarcely a cloud in the sky. The temperature was in the low 60s.

Pax Christi members viewed the move indoors as a measure of their protest's success.

During the last three years, Pax Christi has increased its visibility at Notre Dame. Its emergence is usually attributed to a talk on campus by Fr. Frank Cordaro, veteran peace activist. He challenged a student, Sheila McCarthy, to do something about the ROTC's considerable presence (the largest ROTC presence at any private university in the country). A core group of about 30 began a weekly public rosary, for peace. The group has also sponsored public "dialogues" about Catholicism and the military, drawing up to 100 students, including some ROTC members.

"They're not debates," said Griffin. "They're conversations."

At the protest April 18, McCarthy, a theology major, said school officials are quick to point out that Notre Dame houses, in addition to a large ROTC program, an International Institute for Peace Studies. But the two do not balance out, in her view, because the cadets do not get practical exposure to just war ethics.