Your quality known among your enemies

War and Catholicism. On today’s episode we’ll hear from a
Catholic Bishop and a former member of the British armed forces
talk about how our duties as Christians, striving to walk the
path to Heaven, square with the hell of war? Our conversation is
driven by a powerful scene in the movie Kingdom of Heaven. This
episode features Bishop Neal Buckon of the Archdiocese for the
Military Services, and Catholic and military veteran Rebecca
Clemenz.


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This is a big topic, with many twists and turns, so we’ll attempt
a somewhat narrow conversation today driven by a single line of
movie dialogue: “Your quality will be known among your enemies,
before ever you meet them.”


For me there is so much packed into this line from a movie called
Kingdom of Heaven. A newly-minted Christian knight during the
Crusades named Balian—played by Orlando Bloom—had just released a
Saracen, Muslim fighter on account of his quality, when the man,
Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani delivers this line.


Balian had inherited his estranged father’s nobility as Baron of
Ibelin, and was shipwrecked while journeying to Jerusalem. A lone
surviving horse from the wreck runs to an oasis on a desert plot
of land owned by what we’re told is al-Isfahani’s master. Balian
refuses to give up the horse, and al-Isfahani’s master fights for
it…and loses. Balian spares al-Isfahani’s life, and orders him to
take him to Jerusalem, and once there he releases him and gives
him the horse.


Al-Isfahani is stunned, saying Balian could have made him his
slave, which Balian rejects—he had been near to a slave in his
life and would never hold someone in bondage. And then we hear
it: “Your quality will be known among your enemies, before ever
you meet them.”


A Catholic military perspective on quality, honor, and war—on
this episode of Faith Full. 


As I record this, we’re still seeing the devastation of the war
in Ukraine, just as we’ve seen devastation in Afghanistan, Iraq,
Ethiopia, Yemen, the list is as long as the existence of
humanity. But really where is humanity in war? What about mercy?
Honor? Nobility? This topic is huge, and I want to say at the
outset I can’t cover it all. St. Augustine’s thoughts on Just
War, and the Catholic Church’s teachings on self defense and
preservation of life and peace, cannot be discussed
comprehensively, at least by me, in a single session. I’m also
not a veteran, but I’ve interviewed many in my years as a
journalist, and have friends and family in the service.


You may remember talking through some of these issues in our
episode with Fr. Cirilo Nacorda who was held hostage by
terrorists in the Philippines at one time, and later began
carrying a gun and working to help villagers defend themselves.
I’ve always struggled with this tension between being called to
love our enemies, and having the armed forces needing to face our
enemies.