September 17, 2001

 

IN HOC SIGNO VINCES

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As the workers search the wreckage of the World Trade Center, and the rest of the nation searches its collective soul to achieve some understanding, I offer some thoughts for your consideration, and perhaps, consolation.

It surely is no great revelation that there has been a historical enmity between Islam and Christianity since virtually the time of Mohammed. The cause for the rise of Islam, and fall of much of what was once considered Christendom, is well beyond the scope of this essay, but it is worth noting that this rise coincided with the so-called Dark Ages in Europe.

On the Catholic liturgical calendar, October 7th is commemorated as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. It was on this day in 1571 that the Christian Fleet, furnished by Venice, Genoa and Spain, and commanded by Don Juan de Austria, defeated the Ottoman Turks, in the great battle at Lepanto (Navpaktos), Greece. This victory, in the largest naval engagement since the Battle of Actium in 30 B.C., is credited with saving Europe from being conquered by these Muslim Turks, then at the peak of their naval power in the Mediterranean.

Many secular histories of this confrontation do not relate that on this day, Holy Communion was given to all 65,000 members of the Christian Fleet, who also kept reciting the Rosary before and during the battle. The Venetian Senate wrote to the other States which had taken part in the battle: "It was not generals nor battalions nor arms that brought us victory, but it was Our Lady of the Rosary."

In their bitter defeat, the Turks lost at least 25,000 men. The Christian side sustained about 8,000 deaths and 16,000 wounded, but 12,000 Christian galley slaves had also been freed from their servitude to the Ottomans. Although Cyprus, the original Ottoman objective, was eventually recaptured by the Turks in 1573, the boost in European morale from the Lepanto victory doubtless turned the tide against further Ottoman expansionism.

The events of September 11, 2001 urgently call us to another Lepanto. While the United States is hardly a Christian, let alone Catholic country, those Americans of atheist bent must be feeling quite left out these days, amidst all the prayer vigils, and the palpable, if temporary, return to religion in American life. But they SHOULD feel left out, and they should feel ostracized for their nearly 100-year-long effort to destroy the moral fiber and strength of this country.

Some feel that within a week, we'll be back to Monday Night Football and McDonalds, but I don't agree. Ground zero of the terrorist attack on America is not at all far from ground zero of the American media's attack on its own people. It will take years to remove the physical scars, to say nothing of the emotional ones, and the visible evidence is in the media center of the country. Make no mistake. This horror will be on display for a long time. There won't soon be a return to the world as we once knew it.

We are therefore reminded that aided and abetted by the nonstop outpouring of moral equivalency hogwash; politically correct modalities effectively ending free speech; affirmative action doctrines guaranteed to promote racial and gender discord; popular entertainment characterized not by originality as much as by mindless titillation; endless excuse making on behalf of those enjoying the favor of the Elite; and Leftist/Communist Government programs without number, our mortal enemies have been emboldened to carry out an act of incomprehensible evil.

Despite amazing technological progress, the events of the last 100 years have immersed us in an age as dark as the historical Dark Ages. The analogous rise of those forces diametrically opposed to our way of life has been duly noted. Will we now be similarly emboldened to come back into the Light?


 

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