Deacon Peter Doyle: Remember the words ‘Thou shalt not kill’

Marshall McLuhan’s global village and our modern electronic media were in full evidence on the first weekend of May when, within about 48 hours, millions watched the sacred nuptials of Will and Kate, more millions were in the Vatican or watched on television as beloved pontiff Blessed John Paul was beatified and then on Sunday night we, along with some 56 million Americans, watched as nine American television networks broke away from their regular schedules to air President Barack Obama’s nine-minute speech on the killing of Osama bin Laden.

I took with me to bed that night four remarks from the president: a) on becoming president, Obama said he would “make the killing or the capture of Osama bin Laden a priority,” (b) “to bring him to justice,” (c) “after a fire fight they killed bin Laden” and (d) “justice has been done.”

After his speech I was not prepared to take to the streets like millions of American did to celebrate the killing of one of the worst terrorists of recent times. I reflected on the events of the weekend, and as the week unfolded I saw the facts surrounding the killing of bin Laden change several times. It now appears that the U.S. Navy SEALs never intended to take bin Laden alive. He was not armed or reaching for a rifle during the raid, as reported, and certainly it was never the intention to take him to the U.S. for trial.

Judaism and Christianity share the Ten Commandments and for over 3,500 years the fifth commandment has been clear and unambiguous: “Thou shalt not kill.” History shows that it has been one of the most abused commandments.

Graveyards are filled with corpses who suffered at the hands of those who disobeyed this commandment. Our Bible records the first killing, that of Adam and Eve’s son Abel by his brother Cain.   

The Church teaches that all life is sacred from the moment of conception to natural death. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end; no one can claim for themselves the right to destroy another human being. The Church does recognize some special circumstances, such as legitimate defence, just war and others, but in my view none of those are applicable to  bin Laden’s killing.

Blessed John Paul coined two phrases during his pontificate: “the culture of life” and “the culture of death.” He used the “culture of life” phrase to describe our way of life based upon the theological truth that human life at all stages from conception through natural death is sacred.

The phrase “culture of death” was used to describe all that opposes the “culture of life,” such as abortion, murder, suicide, unjust wars, cloning, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research and some others.

In his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope Blessed John Paul wrote that “for man, the right to life is the fundamental right . . . the right to life means the right to be born and then continue to live until one’s natural end . . . As long as I live, I have the right to live.”

Several days after bin Laden was killed, film producer Michael Moore had an interesting take on bin Laden’s death. He was quoted as saying that as an American citizen with faith in America’s justice system, he believed bin Laden should have been captured and taken to the United States for trial. “We have lost something of our soul in this country — maybe I’m just an old-school American who believes in our judicial system,” he said.

I think Moore is right that America may have lost something of its soul that day.

In these difficult times we need to redouble our efforts to build a world of peace and a culture of life. On the Sunday morning of bin Laden’s death, the Gospel from Luke told the story of Doubting Thomas. Jesus said to His followers three times, “Peace be with you.” That same day, at the beatification of Blessed John Paul, we were reminded of the words from his  first homily in St. Peter’s Square: “Be not afraid.” As John Paul wrote in Crossing the Threshold of Life, “These are not words said into a void. They are profoundly rooted in the Gospel story. They are simply the words of Christ Himself.”

(Deacon Doyle is office manager with The Catholic Register.)