St Joan of Arc

Recently two momentous events in Western and Church History passed with hardly a mention.  Actually, these events may be better known in the Muslim world than the Christian world; the Islamic army’s desecration of St. Peter’s in Rome, along with St John Lateran and other churches in 846, and the stunning defeat of the Islamic military onslaught by Charles the Hammer Martel at Tours, France in 732.  Though these two events occurred over 100 years apart, they do point out that until the Ottoman-Turkish Islamic defeat in 1683 at the gates of Vienna; Europe was facing a never ending threat from radical Islam.  Yet how is it that according to the mainstream media it was the fault of Christians, and specifically Catholics?  In my last article, I wrote of the naval Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the land at the Gates of Vienna in 1683.  Some wondered why I didn’t right about Charles the Hammer Martel and some of the earlier Islamic incursions into Europe.  Now is a good time to delve into that subject. ( For more on Charles the Hammer Martel and the Battle of Tours please read this excellent article by my colleague Donald McClarey.) 

Ask most practicing Catholics, Evangelicals and mainline Protestants who Charles the Hammer Martel was and you would probably get blank stares.  Perhaps a few young people might be under the false impression that he is some sort of up and coming professional wrestler.  However, you would probably stand a better chance of having someone in the Islamic world tell you about Charles the Hammer Martel.  The same might be true for the sack of Rome in 846 by Muslim forces who disembarked at Ostia (the Tiber port) and marched right into Rome desecrating holy sites like St Peter’s and St John Lateran and leaving the Eternal City with their plunder.  Many in the western world might be surprised why they have never heard this and why those who reside in the Islamic world are better informed of these events than in the Western World.  Let us peer back into time to see what we can learn about the past and what it might mean for the future. 

It is said that God can make the best out of the worst.  As Charles Martel grew older and realized that his mother was simply a consort of his regal father, Charles must have realized that he could have been abandoned to poverty, or worse yet aborted (if that had happened Christianity might have been confined to Ireland!)  Charles must have developed a thick skin and a courageous spirit that enabled him not to run at the first sign of trouble.  Europe was in a state of near panic by 730 as the well seasoned professional Islamic Army had laid waste to much of the Middle East and North Africa leaving the homes of those past saints like Augustine in ruins.  Europe was in the Dark Ages, armies were merely feudal in their makeup, a far cry from the type of regimented units needed to stop the largest invading armies Europe had seen since the days when Rome ruled the world.  Continue reading →

In a recent column Washington Post columnist, E J Dionne noted that the Tea Party movement is a great scam.  Quite an indictment coming from the self described progressive Catholic who still thinks government can never be big enough and the Church should tell the faithful more about the teachings of the agnostic Saul Alinsky than that of 2,000 year old teachings of the Catholic Church.  Dionne has made it his business to comment on all matter of politics and religion for quite some time.  His partner in left wing chicanery is New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd who never hesitates to go for the jugular.  Though she says he she comes from humble Washington DC roots, you would never know it by how she mocks those who really came from humble surrounding and never forgot it.  She probably grew up with many Sarah Palin’s and Christine O’Donnell’s around her.  Yet, I doubt she mocked many to their face as she gleefully does now to the backs of Palin and O’Donnell. 

Dionne and Dowd seem to have it backwards, they don’t think citizens should voice their views about the fallacies of liberal Big Government, but they do believe everyone knows better than the divine about religion.  This is quite common for liberals who often seem to think they are divine.  Dionne and Dowd are part of a movement who thinks they should control government and religion, and those who disagree with them are often labeled as unintelligent; the worst sin as far as liberals are concerned.  However, who is the unintelligent one?  Big Government has never worked.  It has only brought huge debt which has to be repaid by future generations.  Individuals who go into debt face a series of tough measures.  Yet Dionne and Dowd seem oblivious to this and advocate the same disastrous path for the government, the end result being tough measures for everyone.  In other words Big Government is a disaster that doesn’t work. 

However, Big Government isn’t the only disaster Dionne and Dowd advocate.  They want the Catholic Church to turn her back on its 2,000 year old teachings and embrace the Dictatorship of Relativism, so named by Pope Benedict XVI.  Dionne and Dowd are happy to embrace dissident Catholics who espouse this sort of thinking.  It seems Dionne and Dowd are more comfortable with the views of Marx, Alinsky and Freud than they are with Christ, St Paul, St Thomas Aquinas, St Joan of Arc and Pope Benedict XVI.  Continue reading →