Posted on 10/17/2007 4:44:06 PM PDT by SandRat
Two Catholic priests were taken into custody at the Federal Courthouse in Tucson this morning after they were sentenced to five months behind bars for trespassing at the military’s Ft. Huachuca last year.
The priests — the Rev. Louis J. Vitale and the Rev. Steve Kelly — had been facing up to 10 months in lockup. The San Francisco Bay-area clerics were arrested last Nov. 19 while protesting military intelligence training at Ft. Huachuca, about 75 miles southeast of Tucson.
They were set to deliver a letter to the post’s top commander, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, stating that the facility trains personnel in torture methods, a claim the Army denies.
U.S. Magistrate Héctor C. Estrada said he was reluctantly sending the priests to jail.
He would have preferred that they do community service work and remain under court supervision while living in their communities.
But the priests had previously said they would not comply with any kind of court supervision because it would mean giving up their social justice work.
One of the conditions of probation would be not to associate with groups that have been known to push the envelope of the law in their non-violent protests, such as the School of The Americas Watch and Nevada Desert Experience. Both priests have been locked up previously for acts of civil disobedience.
“That you are not willing to abide to being supervised disturbs me because it seems you could do more good out there than you could incarcerated,” Estrada said. “I think there’s a question of ego...I get the impression it’s somehow or other you are going to be martyrs for your cause.”
Prosecutors say the priests were repeatedly warned they were trespassing before they were arrested.
Vitale, a 74-year-old Franciscan priest, and Kelly, a 58-year-old Jesuit priest, say they are compelled by God to work against any use of nuclear weapons, and also to work against any form of torture, including training military personnel in how to impose torture.
In a statement to the court, Vitale confirmed he would not be able to comply with probation if it would mean disaffiliating himself from protesting nuclear proliferation and torture. “It’s like telling me I can’t associate with Paul or the other apostles.”
Had Vitale and Kelly been delivering pizza rather than a letter questioning torture methods to Ft. Huachuca, they would have never been arrested, stressed renowned human rights lawyer William Quigley of New Orleans, who represented both priests court today.
Quigley acknowledged the priests had committed a crime and said they were at peace about serving the time. “The real crime here has always been the issue of torture,” Quigley said.
Myself, \/\/ayne, a few other FReepers and other assorted patriots were right there heckling and denouncing these S.O.B’s before they got themselves arrested that day. My electronic bullhorn was especially handy at ruining their day. They thought they were going to be able to commit sedition outside the gates of Fort Huachuca unopposed. They thought wrong. We outnumbered them for a while and we held our ground pretty well when they outnumbered us. We certainly gave them hell.
Oops! Forgot to mention that you were there too.
Moonbat “priest” alert. Instead, these nutjob padres should concerning themselves with ridding the Catholic Church of perv priests who like to have sex with teenage boys.
I’m sure torture methods are being taught now just as they were taught when I was there for the MI basic and MI officer advance courses in 1978 and 1982! We had to run up Huachuca canyon and then back down for pt....that was pure torture, 5 miles round trip, uphill both ways. :)
These two priests don’t know what they are talking about, they just are living in their fantasy world. Let them paint rocks on post during summer afternoons!
I’m such a stinker!! LOL
Yep! Still the same.
LOL! - Right! Pardon me for laughing at a priest, but only here, right?
You are Jesuit & Franciscan priests who have free roam of the entire world, and you can only protest here in America, the greatest and finest defender of mankind and freedom in the world.
If you had the courage of your so called convictions, you would be protesting in NK, or Pakistan, two regimes which run a real risk of reducing parts of the world into radioactive holes in the ground.
Here is a great idea: - Take your show to Iran and protest in front of one of those reactors that they don't have.
I will pray for you if you do, and you could have that satisfaction.
You forgot to add Syria too.
Who can ask for more from our fellow Americans? They follow their own consciences above merely-human laws, stand up for what they believe, and are willing to pay the societal consequences of their actions without any whining. I may not agree with their assessment and assumptions and actions, but admire their following in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau.
Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements, or say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor or investors, with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds or other securities of the United States or the making of loans by or to the United States, and whoever when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt to cause, or incite or attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct or attempt to obstruct the recruiting or enlistment services of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute, or shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any language intended to incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the United States, or to promote the cause of its enemies, or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully by utterance, writing, printing, publication, or language spoken, urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things, product or products, necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war in which the United States may be engaged, with intent by such curtailment to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution of war, and whoever shall willfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated, and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or the imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both: Provided, That any employee or official of the United States Government who commits any disloyal act or utters any unpatriotic or disloyal language, or who, in an abusive and violent manner criticizes the Army or Navy or the flag of the United States shall be at once dismissed from the service...
Me. I can ask more, in fact I demand that they act as in my post above.
When they start doing that, then come back to me and repeat that. I will be waiting.
Don’t hold your breath though, it will be a very, very long wait...
Fortunately, we have space for them until such a day.
I don’t recall any blocks of instruction on torture in 1976 or 1980, either.
We did, however, learn to focus our powers of persuasion on the women at the Sin of Cortez out on the edge of town.
Because there are lots of actual military veterans and active duty service members on this website, myself included.
And that old canard about “being willing to fight to the death to defend” every ignorant idiots “freedom to act like a mindless jerk” is untrue.
Myself, I fought for the right of every citizen to call them idiots, no matter who they were.
Seems to me these two priests are a bit confused as to whom God told them they should be protesting, if they really intend to fight against evil in this world,
I would suggest they journey to Iran or Mexico and try their schtick there.
But I guess that idea must have been too scary for these two particular priests, who claim God “called them to action.”
Oh well!
We will all have to wait for judgement day to find out from God if they answered his call or not.
Meanwhile, I have no problem expecting a bit more of a sacrifice, from my fellow citizens, priests or not,who claim God called them to action, than childishly acting out in front of a military base in the USA.
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