Star Trek, the Bishops and Drones

"But a 21st Century Catholic bishop said..."

Being a Trekkie (devotee of the Star Trek franchise) is at least vaguely similar to being a Catholic. Both groups display intense devotion to time-honored canons of stories, people, values and entire universes governed by laws and ancient wisdom.

And sometimes both of them raise questions about the morality of drone strikes.

Bp Pates: Drones are not logical for peace.

On May 17, Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, wrote letters to National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon and leaders in Congress, urging a public discussion on the use of drone strikes by the United States. Shortly thereafter, President Obama announced that his administration was tightening guidelines for drone strikes, with an apparent eye toward scaling back their use. A few days later, the Pakistan Taliban's second in command was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone strike. On June 4, Bishop Pates reiterated the moral questions raised by drone attacks in a piece on the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog.

The end result hasn't been so much the public discussion Bishop Pates called for, so much as drones fleetingly returning to our collective attention before being brushed aside as "too complicated to think about" somewhere around the second cup of coffee. Fortunately, Bishop Pates hasn't been alone in raising these questions. The other voices, however, are aboard the Starship Enterprise at a multiplex near you.

(Minor spoilers ahead.)

J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek Into Darkness," released the same day as Bishop Pates' letter, finds Captain James T. Kirk (also from Iowa) and the Enterprise crew sent deep into space, to the edge of the Neutral Zone, to find a terrorist. The terrorist is hiding on the Klingon home world, Kronos, and while the Klingons are hostile to the Federation, they aren't technically at war. Star Fleet's solution: don't invade the Klingon world to catch this man. Simply take him out with these handy new torpedoes we've developed.

(It doesn't exactly take a stroke of foreign policy/storytelling genius to have words like "Pakistan" and "drone strikes" running through one's mind at this point.)

The order doesn't go down well with the crew. Mr. Spock raises the question of how it's moral to essentially assassinate a person without anything resembling a trial. Another crew member resigns over the issue of the Enterprise being used for combat purposes. Both objections resemble concerns raised by Bishop Pates about how drone strikes struggle to apply Just War requirements to actions outside of a war zone.

And while the Enterprise crew fears sparking a war with the Klingons, Bishop Pates talks more generally about how drones are not a recipe for lasting peace. "Targeted killings sow anger and unrest among the countless people whose lives are upended," he writes. "The use of attack drones should be inseparable from the question of whether it promotes peace and security around the world."

In the 2003 documentary "The Fog of War," former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (an architect of the Vietnam War) said "the human race needs to think more about killing." The new Star Trek movie provides a vision of a 23rd Century with people for whom the value of human life -- and the taking of  it -- is still a big deal. They have apparently had the discussion Bishop Pates calls for, given much thought to killing and found it immoral and, yes, illogical.

(CNS Photo/Paramount)

The Face of Poverty

January is Poverty Awareness Month. To help raise awareness among Catholics of poverty and its underlying issues, USCCB has updated its website, www.PovertyUSA.org, and launched a Spanish counterpart, www.PobrezaUSA.org. Our blog is also running a series of posts by guest bloggers reflecting on poverty in our country and the world today. Today’s post is by Bishop Richard E. Pates.

Poverty has a face; it is the face of Christ in poor people. As Jesus taught: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for Me.” The Gospel reminds us that the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the ill, and those in prison are Christ. 

Christ is present in the hungry child in Malawi, stunted and sickly from a lack of proper nutrition. Christ is in infants on the verge of death from preventable water-borne illnesses due to a lack of clean water supplies in Zambia. Christ is visible in refugees and strangers who flee famine, war or persecution, as in Syria today. We meet Christ in the naked child whose body is racked with toxic poisons from a polluted water source near an unregulated mining operation in Peru. Christ gazes out of the dull eyes of a mother dying of AIDS in South Africa, too sick to care for her children, soon to be orphans. We come upon Christ in a father separated from his children for a non-violent drug offense in a U.S. prison, the nation with the highest rate of incarceration in the world. 

Earlier this year, I saw the face of Christ in an unlikely place of poverty: a sprawling seminary in Nigeria. I was there to preside over the ordination to the priesthood of 10 Nigerian Spiritans and 15 to the transitional diaconate. Spiritan priests from Nigeria have faithfully served the Diocese of Des Moines for many years. The high school seminary has 600 students, approximately 10 percent of whom will likely become priests. The seminary provides a broad and good education, but what struck me was that while the seminary was rich in faith, it was poor in resources. The classrooms were little more than shelters. There were few books and no technology. Living quarters were below standard. For me, this seminary became a symbol of the spiritual richness and physical poverty of the Church in Africa. Although the seminarians were much better off than many poor Nigerians, poverty was still evident. 

Of course, recognizing Christ in the poor is not enough. We must then meet Christ’s needs in His people. Our Diocese of Des Moines has begun in a small way to do just that. The schools of our diocese are reaching out to the seminary to provide cash assistance to address the seminary’s urgent need for resources. There is a person-to-person connection and an effort to support and enhance the resources at the seminary’s disposal. 

In the same way, the broader Church in our diocese and throughout the United States reaches out to the Church and people of poor countries in the developing world. The Church in Latin America collection and the Church in Africa initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops provide grants for pastoral activities. Catholic Relief Services, the bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, provides humanitarian and development assistance, often in partnership with the local Church, in about 100 countries. We can do our part by supporting this work. 

We can also raise our voices in the public square on behalf of the world’s poor.  Motivated by Christ’s identification with poor persons, we can encourage public officials to preserve and strengthen U.S. poverty-focused international assistance. This aid is less than one percent of the federal budget, but literally saves lives and creates livelihoods for the poorest people in the poorest places on earth all of whom are Christ. They are our brothers and sisters in the human family. 

More information on poverty can be found at the Catholics Confront Global Poverty website.

---

Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines chairs the Committee on International Justice and Peace, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

El rostro de la pobreza

Por Monseñor Richard E. Pates

La pobreza tiene un rostro; es el rostro de Cristo en los pobres. Como Jesús nos enseñó: “Lo que hicieras por el más pobre de mis hermanos, lo haces por Mi”. El Evangelio nos recuerda que el hambriento, el sediento, el desconocido, el desnudo, el enfermo y los que están en prisión son Cristo.

Cristo está presente en el niño hambriento en Malaui, raquítico y enfermo por la falta de nutrición adecuada. Cristo está en infantes a punto de morir de enfermedades que se pueden prevenir y que se transmiten debido a la falta de agua potable en Zambia. Cristo está visible en refugiados y extranjeros que huyen de condiciones de hambruna, guerra o persecuciones como ocurre hoy en Siria. Nos encontramos a Jesús en el niño sin ropa cuyo cuerpo ha sido envenenado con substancias tóxicas debido a aguas contaminadas cerca de una mina con operaciones no reguladas en Perú. Cristo mira desde los ojos sin vida de una madre que muere de SIDA en Sudáfrica, demasiado enferma para cuidar a sus hijos que pronto serán huérfanos. Nos encontramos a Cristo en el padre separado de sus hijos por un delito de drogas no violento en una prisión del país, la nación con el promedio más alto de personas encarceladas en el mundo.

Hace pocos meses, vi la cara de Cristo en un lugar donde no tiende a verse la pobreza: un popular seminario en Nigeria. Estuve ahí para presidir la ordenación de 10 sacerdotes Espiritanos  y 15 más en diaconado transicional. Los sacerdotes Espiritanos de Nigeria han servido fielmente a la diócesis de Des Moines por muchos años. El seminario de la escuela secundaria tiene 600 estudiantes, aproximadamente 10 por ciento de los cuales se convertirán en sacerdotes. El seminario les provee una amplia y buena educación, pero lo que me sorprendió es que mientras el seminario era rico en fe, era pobre en recursos. Los salones de clases eran un poco más que un sitio con techo. Había pocos libros y ningún aparato tecnológico. Las viviendas estaban en condiciones muy pobres. Para mí, este seminario se convirtió en un símbolo de riqueza espiritual y pobreza física de la Iglesia en África. Aunque los seminaristas se encontraban en condiciones mucho mejores que muchos nigerianos pobres, la pobreza continuaba siendo evidente.

Claro que reconocer a Cristo en el pobre no es suficiente. Debemos luego ayudar a Cristo en sus necesidades a través de Su gente. Nuestra diócesis de Des Moines ha comenzado a hacer eso de manera sencilla. Las escuelas de nuestra diócesis están ayudando al seminario con donaciones de dinero para ayudar a resolver las necesidades más urgentes del seminario. Ahí hay una conexión de persona a persona y un esfuerzo por apoyar y mejorar los recursos a disposición del seminario.

De la misma manera, la amplia Iglesia en nuestra diócesis y a través de los Estados Unidos ayuda a la Iglesia y a la gente de países pobres. La colecta de la Iglesia en América Latina y la iniciativa para la Iglesia en África de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los Estados Unidos, proveen fondos para actividades pastorales. Catholic Relief Services, la agencia de asistencia y desarrollo internacional de los obispos, provee asistencia humanitaria y de desarrollo, frecuentemente en colaboración con la iglesia local, en unos 100 países. Nosotros podemos poner de nuestra parte apoyando estas obras.

También podemos alzar nuestras voces en la vida pública a favor de los pobres del mundo. Motivados por la identificación de Cristo con los pobres, podemos exhortar a los servidores públicos a preservar y fortalecer la asistencia internacional a programas que enfocan en la pobreza. Esta asistencia equivale a menos del uno por ciento del presupuesto federal, pero literalmente salva vidas y crea sustento para los más pobres del mundo que también son de Cristo. Ellos son nuestros hermanos y hermanas en la familia humana.

Más información sobre la pobreza puede encontrarse en el sitio web: Catholics Confront Global Poverty.

---

Mons. Richard E. Pates de Des Moines  preside el Comité sobre Paz y Justicia Internacional  de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los Estados Unidos.