As I walked T-Court, the flat roof of King Hall at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, during “Army-Navy Week,” it was an intense, tradition filled lead-up to the annual Army-Navy football game. So recalls Father Mark Rutherford, pictured below, Rector of Saint Mary Cathedral in Lansing, who served as Judicial Vicar to the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, from 2020 until earlier this year.
The 2023 game took place on Saturday, December 9, and the surrounding day included the humorous image (a picture I snapped!) of a little plastic Army man of a Naval officer’s shoe positioned over them to “crush” them in a classical visual prank. Army won the 2023 game with a final score of 17-11. Such are the pleasures during moments of peacetime, for which we are all grateful. One month later, true tragedy struck.
On January 28, 2024, a mere month later, in the Rukban region in northeastern Jordan, near Syria and Iraqi borders, a drone, launched by an Iranian-backed militia coalition struck a U.S. military base, killing three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers, marking the first U.S. service member causalities following the Gaza war.
A U.S. Army priest-chaplain, a personal friend of mine, whom I will leave unnamed, was serving nearby. The base chapel became a makeshift triage center, where a small medical team treated more than a dozen wounded soldiers. The blood of U.S. soldiers spattered the chalice and paten. Before he could offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the priest had to wash the blood of American soldiers from the sacred vessels that would hold the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ — after which he contacted me regarding the event.
In that terrible task, the cost of service to our country met the Church’s unwavering hope in the Resurrection. Such an event is not meant to equate the Blood of Jesus with the blood of complex human history, but rather that at the altar, he, the priest, could entrust the fallen, the wounded, and their families to the Savior who had conquered death. May God grant eternal rest to our fallen, healing to our wounded, blessings on all our living Veterans, and courage to all who wear our nation’s uniform, and may He bless the United States of America with a people worthy of their sacrifice, steadfast in faith, grateful for liberty, and resolved to use that liberty in the service of truth, justice, and peace.
In honoring our defenders, we must also heed Archbishop Timothy Broglio’s reminder that war must remain a last resort and innocent lives must be protected. Pope Leo XIV, while affirming the right to self-defense in its strictest sense, has warned that the “just war” tradition has too often been invoked to justify armed conflict, urging nations to pursue peace through dialogue, diplomacy, and forgiveness (Magnifica Humanitas, §192).
To those who served, may God bless you. Your deeds will never be forgotten.
