Opposing The Great War Machine

Standing Up For Life In The Midst Of Death  

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – “Understand why I’m bringing you the story of Franz Jägerstätter.  He knew it was the right thing to do.  He knew his government was wrong.  He was not going to pick up arms and he wasn’t going to go fight.  By the way, folks, you may have heard the story that then-Cardinal Ratzinger, young Joseph Ratzinger was also conscripted by Hitler.  He didn’t refuse conscription but he refused service.”  Check out today’s transcript for the rest….

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

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In 1956, the American socialist Gordon Zahn, then researching a book in Germany on another subject, came across Jägerstätter’s story.

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Mike:  By the way, it’s one of the reasons I like the Church of Scientology part.  I have to pray that he convert back to Catholicism, because Tom Cruise was born a Catholic and he knows better.  Tom Cruise has chosen some pretty decent story material.  No, not Vanilla Sky, but the movie where he played – who did he play, the German guy?  The German dude that was part of the coup to try and assassinate Hitler and restore the peace party back into power in Germany.  What the heck is the name of that movie?  It’ll come to me in a moment.  I’m thinking of this story as I’m reading this.

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Transfixed, he thought it worthy of a serious biography and visited Austria to write it. After recovering Jägerstätter’s papers and interviewing surviving relatives and friends – including two priests who served as his spiritual counselors – Zahn published In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter (1964).

The book has since been translated into various languages, and it had a significant impact on the Church’s support for conscientious objectors. As the biography reveals, Franz Jägerstätter was the unlikeliest of heroes. He was “a relatively untutored man from a remote and isolated rural village,” writes Zahn. Moreover, he was “a married man with a wife and children for whom he was responsible and whose future welfare he was morally bound to consider.”

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Mike:  For those of you that say you can’t oppose the great war machine because it’ll get you in trouble – Valkyrie, von Stauffenberg, thank you, Christopher.  The movie is Valkyrie with Tom Cruise.  He played von Stauffenberg.  Yeah, I know, [mocking] “Mike, you know that thing wasn’t at all based on the truth.”  There’s a documentary contained on the Blu-ray disc.  I watched the documentary and von Stauffenberg’s kids are in it.  They said that the story is pretty much as they recalled it.  You have your story and the kids have theirs.  I’ll leave it at that.  I’ll leave it at that, naysayers.

Understand why I’m bringing you the story of Franz Jägerstätter.  He knew it was the right thing to do.  He knew his government was wrong.  He was not going to pick up arms and he wasn’t going to go fight.  By the way, folks, you may have heard the story that then-Cardinal Ratzinger, young Joseph Ratzinger was also conscripted by Hitler.  He didn’t refuse conscription but he refused service.  He stayed in his tent and he prayed.  He said: If you’re going to make me go and serve, you’re going to have to shoot me.  I am not going to fight.  He didn’t.  There’s been a lot of stuff made up about Joseph Ratzinger.  I know all you little Trad Caths out there right now are at your keyboard, [mocking] “You don’t know the truth about that.”  Again, you’ve got your story; Cardinal / Holy Father Ratzinger / Benedict XVI has his.

That’s really a commentary, folks.  I read a story like this about a German man who did something that is, on its surface, obviously good and with the greatest of intentions.  The purists out there will look for a little, tiny angle to nitpick it.  Instead of looking at the overall picture, recognizing that there’s goodness here, and just letting the rest lie, [mocking] “Orthodoxy requires, Mike.”  No, orthodoxy requires that you look at the end result of what it is Franz Jägerstätter did.  Either that or I’ve got the wrong impression of orthodoxy.  By the way, we should have a lot more orthodoxy these days.

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In 1936, Jägerstätter and his new bride, Franziska Schwaninger, traveled to Rome for their honeymoon. The visit ended with a papal blessing in St. Peter’s Square, from Pope Pius XI, and from that moment forward Jägerstätter appears to have undergone a spiritual reawakening.

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Mike:  You see, Ted Cruz would only remember the old Jägerstätter.  [mocking Cruz] “I knew you before you claimed to be blessed by the Holy Father.  Like Donald Trump, you were once a sinner.  Once you were a sinner, you can never be among us who are the sinless.  You understand me, Jägerstätter?”

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Returning home to St. Radegund, he became a daily communicant and lay member of the Franciscan Third Order. He memorized the Bible and began emulating the lives of the saints. [Mike: Don’t tell President Cruz that either.] Working as the sexton of his parish, he arranged services for the local villagers, refusing any payment for his work. [Mike: That makes him not a capitalist. Especially now don’t tell Cruz that. Don’t tell Trump either.] He fasted, performed penance, and gave alms to the poor, even as he struggled to earn a decent living for himself.

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About this time, his godson, just a teenager, lost his father unexpectedly, and Jägerstätter wrote the boy a moving letter . . . [Mike: I won’t get into all that. It’s a great story. I’ve linked to it in today’s Pile of Prep.]

After Hitler’s forces annexed Austria, completing the Anschluss, Jägerstätter was the lone voice in his village to oppose it and was appalled by the willingness of his many countrymen, including high-level prelates, to aquiesce. [Mike: Understand what’s going on here.  He’s telling people in a religious order above him: You’re wrong to accept this, you’re wrong.] “I believe there could scarcely be a sadder hour for the true Christian faith in our country,” he wrote, “than this hour when one watches in silence while this error spreads its ever-widening influence.” Commenting on the Austrian plebiscite, which gave approval to the Anschluss , he lamented: “I believe that what took place in the spring of 1938 was not much different from what happened that Holy Thursday 1,900 years ago when the crowd was given a free choice between the innocent Savior and the criminal Barabbas.”

Jägerstätter himself became an outspoken opponent of the Nazi regime and refused all cooperation. When a storm destroyed his crops, he declined any assistance from Germany. He stopped attending social events to avoid heated arguments with Nazi apologists.

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Mike:  This man is giving us a roadmap for how to withdraw our consent from Mordor.  I hope this is beneficial.

End Mike Church Show Transcript