Brother Louis DeThomasis, FSC, Ph.D.
Chancellor
Saint Mary's
700
Dear Brother Louis,
I am blessed because of the education, direction, and opportunities Saint Mary's has given me and I am grateful for the leadership and gifts you have brought to Saint Mary's University and our larger Lasallian community. I am writing to you because of the challenge the proposed veterans' memorial project presents to the Lasallain vision of faith and service to the poor and youth of our world.
It is not the goal of this letter to foment division but instead to present one social and theological analysis of the Saint Mary's community's conflicting desires, on the one hand to remember the lives of friends and family, and on the other honor the reality of war and the Catholic teachings on it. Through that analysis I hope to call a community to have difference without division while being honest with history and to inspire hope for the future Lasallian vision. I will try to offer a number of constructive paths toward a concrete historical project that remembers our friends and family, restores us to a union with God in a repentant history, and envisions a world where violence is not the only recourse to conflict.
A memorial such as the one proposed is not simply a monument or specific place to remember Saint Mary's lives lost. As a cultural artifact, it will tell a story as long as it stands. It is with this lens that I challenge the administration to consider the past history such a memorial tells and the futures it will influence. The collective memory of a community can be a powerful force for change. Currently, the proposed veteran's memorial project obscures our history and fails to recognize the dignity of persons in our world. As followers of De La Salle's prophetic path of justice for the poor and powerless in the world, we too must bear that commitment of transformative justice. A university community whose mission claims dedication to social justice should reflect that.
Transformative justice demands that histories be told so that those hearing the story understand injustice as contrary to the will of God and the future of humanity, but also that stories be told of hope and change for a yet-to-be-written history free from violence and war. A veterans' war memorial that can remember and tell the history of sacrifice and service of our community, but that is also sorrowfully honest with the reality of the horror and injustice of that history is the only way that we can respond to the call for transformative justice.
Participation in violence, no matter what "justification," always reflects the broken covenant of a community with God. [1] A memorial that simply honors the SMU war dead explicitly tells the story of their heroism but implicitly tells viewers that the violence, collateral damage, and failure to achieve peace are of no import. Can we have instead a memorial that honors their heroism but also addresses what is necessary to be free from violence, to restore communion with God, and remember such covenantal brokenness with historical accuracy and mourning?
Some of the wars the
The proposed memorial also fails to acknowledge the many other lives that were lost in those wars, the lives of our brothers and sisters in the global Lasallian community and the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We are called by God to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God, a communion we share with the earthly community. This call does not end; we must strive for ongoing conversion to more justice, more love, and more humility. I am asking you to put a moratorium on this project while you bring all the Saint Mary's community, alumni, faculty, staff and students, together for conversation in a spirit of openness to conversion.
I propose the following suggestions to make such a conversation more likely to succeed in creating a new historical project that honors our Catholic, Lasallian heritage and mission:
- Honoring the reality of the violence suffered by the veterans and others in any war.
- Rooting the personal services and sacrifices of the veterans within the social contexts of the wars in which they served: what are the larger, historical, theological, and moral considerations of each context?
- Considering how a memorial project embodies the SMU mission to help students live ethical lives of service and leadership, especially the poor (who traditionally serve as cannon fodder).
- Asking the questions "what kind of future do we want to believe in" and "how is what we are doing embody or disembody that reality, both in the process and product of the memorial project?"
- Using language that is honest, acknowledging the violence and suffering in war and the demands and struggles nonviolent peacemakers face.
- Allowing for wider community input in a project that affects so many people. Encourage and stimulate discussion about our differences, but do so without division.
The preservation of peace falls on the shoulders of war-makers and politicians of nation-states and by extension, the veterans of Saint Mary's. The building of peace falls on the shoulders of peace-makers and believers of a nonviolent Spirit of God. Please help us take a step toward being peace-makers by reconsidering and reworking what this War Veterans' Memorial Project means to all those committed to Lasallian service.
Live Jesus in Our Hearts,
Jake Olzen, '07411 Mensching
[1] The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, No. 488 says, "Peace is founded on the primary relationship that exists between human beings and God himself, a relationship marked by righteousness (cf. Gen 17:1). […] Violence made its appearance in interpersonal relationships (cf. Gen 4:1-16) and in social relationships (cf. 11:1-9). Peace and violence cannot dwell together, and where there is violence, God cannot be present (cf. 1 Chr 22:8-9)."
