Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Pope Francis’ trip to Canada signals an Aplogy for Atrocities Inflicted on the Indigenous People Of Canada by the Christians
Sunday, July 24, 2022
Pope Francis’
trip to Canada to apologize for the horrors of church-run Indigenous
residential schools marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Church’s
missionary legacy, spurred on by the first pope from the Americas and
the discovery of hundreds of probable graves at the school sites.
Francis has said his weeklong visit, which begins Sunday, is a
“penitential pilgrimage” to beg forgiveness on Canadian soil for the
“evil” done to Native peoples by Catholic missionaries. It follows his
April 1 apology in the Vatican for the generations of trauma Indigenous
peoples suffered as a result of a church-enforced policy to eliminate
their culture and assimilate them into Canadian, Christian society.
Francis’
tone of personal repentance has signaled a notable shift for the
papacy, which has long acknowledged abuses in the residential schools
and strongly asserted the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples. But
past popes have also hailed the sacrifice and holiness of the European
Catholic missionaries who brought Christianity to the Americas _
something Francis, too, has done but isn’t expected to emphasize during
this trip.
