War blogger LT Smash, a soldier serving in Kuwait, provides the following inspiring story which we also heard on Rush Limbaugh’s show today.
Martin Savidge of CNN, embedded with the 1st Marine [Division], was talking with 4 young Marines near his foxhole this morning live on CNN. He had been telling the story of how well the Marines had been looking out for and taking care of him since the war started. He went on to tell about the many hardships the Marines had endured since the war began and how they all look after one another.
He turned to the four and said he had cleared it with their commanders and they could use his video phone to call home.
The 19 year old Marine next to him asked Martin if he would allow his platoon sergeant to use his call to call his pregnant wife back home whom he had not been able to talk to in three months. A stunned Savidge who was visibly moved by the request [nodded] his head and the young Marine ran off to get the sergeant.
Savidge recovered after a few seconds and turned back to the three young Marines still sitting with him and asked which one of them would like to call home first, the Marine closest to him responded with out a moments hesitation, “Sir, if is all the same to you we would like to call the parents of a buddy of ours, Lance Cpl Brian Buesing of Cedar Key, Florida who was killed on 3-23-03 near Nasiriya to see how they are doing.”
At that Martin Savidge totally broke down and was unable to speak. All he could get out before signing off was ontent:encoded>Catholic Charities of Boston may take Voice of the Faithful’s money despite Bishop Lennon’s order that they not. This is completely unacceptable.
It’s time for Bishop Lennon to lay down the law. Technically, he can’t overrule decisions of the board, but he can fire board members. He can also take the drastic action of stripping them of the name of being Catholic. If they continue to flout his leadership and authority, I think that’s only the appropriate thing to do.
The Boston Herald editorialized that it disagreed with Bishop Lennon, that he was continuing to
ignore the faithful. But of course, VOTF doesn’t represent the faithful in any meaningful way.And by also demanding that Catholic Charities refuse donations from the lay group, the archdiocese’s interim leader has demonstrated that his Lake Street headquarters remains as distant from its mission of aiding the needy, as it was from its duty of protecting the innocent.
Wrong, editors. The mission of the Church is not to aid the needy primarily. The mission of the Church is to spread the Gospel first, and to engage in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy while doing it.
And let’s remember that this is just $35,000. It’s a tiny gift in the grand scheme of things. It is a symbolic gesture and I think the drive by some to demand the Church accept it and the disobedience of some Catholic Charities to take it smells fishy. I think VOTF knows that this issue is its last gasp of relevance.
