Yesterday, in my column on Arlington National Cemetery, I failed to note that not all 327,000 people buried there fought or died in battle: that number includes next of kin buried with those who did fight. Also: the name of the house on the hill above President Kennedy’s grave site: On the Arlington National Cemetery official site map, the building many call the Lee Mansion and/or the Custis-Lee Mansion is still called the Arlington House. It was the former home of General Robert E. Lee but built by George Washington Parke Custis, the step-grandson and adopted son of George Washington and only grandson of Martha Custis Washington.
With regard to the Tomb of the Unknowns, Ted wrote today to tell me that the official website failed to mentioned that the Vietnam unknown was exhumed in 1998 after positive identification: He was a USAF 1st Lieutenant.
My friend Ted just sent me this photo of the Arlington Cemetery graves at Christmas - they are all decorated with wreaths, as you can see! How splendid! He said this photo is not one of the many he has taken but is from the official Arlington National Cemetery website.
Monday, as I was visiting the World War II monument, the Pentagon 9-11 Memorial, Arlington Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Marine Memorial, I could only think of how many people, so many men and women, died to protect our freedom and the rights enshrined in our Constitution. They also died to defend the rights of citizens in other nations who cherish the same rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the right to freedon of religion, of speech, of conscience.
And today, amidst the splendor of these monuments and memorials, we are again facing attacks on our freedoms, most notably the freedom of religion. Are we prepared to die to defend that right? Would we die for our faith?
Today, I’ll take you to the Iwo Jima Memorial, which I saw Monday, just two days after the Marines’ 237th birthday, and the 9-11 Memorial at the Pentagon. Next week, we’ll visit two important shrines in Washington!
But first an important talk this morning by the Holy Father.
TRUE ECUMENISM CANNOT IGNORE CRISIS OF FAITH
Pope Benedict today addressed the members and consultors of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on the occasion of their plenary as they discuss the theme, "The importance of ecumenism in new evangelization." He focused his address on the close ties between the work of evangelization and the need to overcome the divisions that still exist between Christians.
"We cannot follow a truly ecumenical path,” he stated, “while ignoring the crisis of faith affecting vast areas of the world, including those where the proclamation of the Gospel was first accepted and where Christian life has flourished for centuries. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the many signs indicating a persistent need for spirituality, which is made manifest in various ways. The spiritual poverty of many of our contemporaries, who no longer perceive the absence of God in their lives as a form of deprivation, poses a challenge to all Christians."
Benedict underscored that "we, believers in Christ, are called upon to return to the essential, to the heart of our faith, to bear witness to the living God before the world. … This is the faith we received in Baptism and it is the faith that, in hope and charity, we can profess together.”
He spoke of “the importance of the theological dialogues and conversations in which the Catholic Church is engaged with Churches and ecclesial communities,” and said, “even when we cannot discern the possibility of re-establishing full communion in the near future, such dialogue facilitates our awareness, not only of resistance and obstacles, but also of the richness of experience, spiritual life and theological reflection, which become a stimulus for ever deeper testimony."
Benedict XVI emphasized that the aim of ecumenism is "visible unity between divided Christians". To this end, we must "dedicate all our forces, but we must also recognize that, in the final analysis, this unity is a gift from God, and may come to us only from the Father through His Son, because the Church is His Church. From this perspective we see, not only the importance of invoking the Lord for visible unity, but also how striving after this end is relevant to the new evangelization.
"It is good,” the Holy Father added, “to journey together towards this objective, provided that the Churches and ecclesial communities do not stop along the way, accepting the various contradictions between them as normal or as the best they can hope to achieve.”
He concluded by stating that, "Unity is on the one hand the fruit of faith and, on the other, a means - almost a prerequisite - for an increasingly credible proclamation of the faith to those who do not yet know the Savior or who, while having received the proclamation of the Gospel, have almost forgotten this valuable gift. True ecumenism …demands above all patience, humility, and abandonment to the will of the Lord. … Ecumenism and new evangelization both require the dynamism of conversion, understood as the sincere desire to follow Christ and to fully adhere to the will of the Father."
IWO JIMA: THE MARINE CORPS WAR MEMORIAL
As I mentioned in my column on Tuesday, when I visited the Iwo Jima memorial in Arlington, Virginia, a day earlier with my friend Ted Bronson (USN Ret.), I was stunned at the beauty and power of this monument to the Marines. I had the feeling I had never visited this site before as I surely would have remembered such a magnificent memorial!
Ted had given me some history and I read more that was inscribed on the monument but I wanted to learn even more today and thus visited www.marinemarathon.com for the full story, What follows is from that site and it includes excerpts from NPS.gov and mbw.usmc.mil
The Marine Corps War Memorial depicts the raising of the American flag at Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 by U.S. Marines in World War II during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The 32-foot high figures are shown erecting a 60-foot bronze flagpole from which a cloth flag flies 24 hours a day in accordance with the Presidential Proclamation of June 12, 1961. The statue is the largest bronze statue in the world at 78 feet tall and weighing 100 tons.
Iwo Jima, which means Sulfur Island, was strategically important as an air base for fighter escorts supporting long-range bombing missions against mainland Japan. Because of the distance between mainland Japan and U.S. bases in the Mariana Islands, the capture of Iwo Jima would provide an emergency landing strip for crippled B-29 planes returning from bombing runs. The seizure of Iwo would allow for sea and air blockades, the ability to conduct intensive air bombardment and to destroy the enemy's air and naval capabilities. The fighting that took place during the 36-day assault would be immortalized in the words of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who said, "Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue."
On the morning of February 19,1945, the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions invaded the Island of Iwo Jima. The 28th Regiment of the 5th Marine Division was ordered to capture the extinct volcano on the southern tip of the island named Mount Suribachi. The Marines reached the base of the volcano on the afternoon of 21 February and by nightfall of the next day, the Marines had the mountain surrounded.
Burnished in gold on the granite are the names and dates of every principal Marine Corps engagement since the founding of the Corps, as well as the inscription: "In honor and in memory of the men of the United States Marine Corps who have given their lives to their country since November 10, 1775." Also inscribed on the base is the tribute of Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz to the fighting men on Iwo Jima: "Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue."
THE FLAG RAISING
Early on the morning of February 23, the Marines from Easy Company, 2nd Battalion started to climb the volcano. By 1030 they had reached the top and erected a small American flag. Later that afternoon, five Marines and a Navy corpsman raised a larger more visible flag. The second flag raising is what is depicted in the monument at Arlington, Virginia. News-photographer Joe Rosenthal caught the afternoon flag-raising in an inspiring Pulitzer Prize winning photograph. (jfl: this is the only photo ever to win a Pulitzer).
PENTAGON 9-11 MEMORIAL
I know that each one of us who was alive on September 11, 2001 remembers exactly where we were on the day that America was forever changed. I’ve been to Washington a number of times since that date but never did go to the Pentagon Memorial so Monday was very special for me.
I took the photos you see here but the information is from www.pentagonmemorial.net (and there is an interactive site at www.pentagonmemorial.org).
Each Memorial Unit is a cantilevered bench, a lighted pool of flowing water, and a permanent tribute, by name, to each victim, in one single element. 
Each memorial bench is made of stainless steel and inlaid with smooth granite. Each Memorial Unit contains a pool of water, reflecting light in the evenings onto the bench and surrounding gravel field.
Each Memorial Unit is also specifically positioned in the Memorial to distinguish victims who were in the Pentagon from those who were on board American Airlines Flight 77.
At the 125 Memorial Units honoring the victims of the Pentagon, visitors see the victim’s name and the Pentagon in the same view. At the Memorial Units honoring the 59 lives lost on Flight 77, the visitor sees the victim’s name and the direction of the plane’s approach in the same view.
SYNOD ON EVANGELIZATION: FINAL PROPOSITIONS
Proposition 9 : NEW EVANGELIZATION AND INITIAL PROCLAMATION
The foundation of all initial proclamation, the kerygmatic dimension, the Good News, makes prominent an explicit announcement of salvation. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (1 Cor 15:3-5).
The ‘first proclamation’ is where the kerygma, the message of salvation of the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, is proclaimed with great spiritual power to the point of bringing about repentance of sin, conversion of hearts and a decision of faith. At the same time there has to be continuity between first proclamation and catechesis which instructs us in the deposit of the faith.
We consider it necessary that there be a Pastoral Plan of Initial Proclamation, teaching a living encounter with Jesus Christ. This pastoral document would provide the first elements for the catechetical process, enabling its insertion into the lives of the parish communities.
The Synod Fathers propose that guidelines of the initial proclamation of the kerygma be written. This compendium would include:
- Systematic teaching on the kerygma in Scripture and Tradition of the Catholic Church;
- Teachings and quotations from the missionary saints and martyrs in our Catholic history that would assist us in our pastoral challenges of today; and
- Qualities and guidelines for the formation of Catholic evangelizers today.
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