CNS: Church firmly, quietly opposes firearms for civilians?

Badge of the Vendeans

VATICAN CITY[uhhh, not really] — The Catholic Church's position on gun control is not easy to find; there are dozens of speeches and talks and a few documents that call for much tighter regulation of the global arms trade, but what about private gun ownership?

The answer is resoundingly clear: Firearms in the hands of civilians should be strictly limited and eventually completely eliminated.

But you won't find that statement in a headline or a document subheading. It's almost hidden in a footnote in a document on crime by the U.S. bishops' conference and it's mentioned in passing in dozens of official Vatican texts on the global arms trade.

The most direct statement comes in the bishops' "Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice" from November 2000.

"As bishops, we support measures that control the sale and use of firearms and make them safer -- especially efforts that prevent their unsupervised use by children or anyone other than the owner -- and we reiterate our call for sensible regulation of handguns."

That's followed by a footnote that states: "However, we believe that in the long run and with few exceptions -- i.e. police officers, military use -- handguns should be eliminated from our society."

The rest at The Compass

I have to tell you that this article is very misleading.  The Holy Father did not make any such comments; a USCCB committee did.  There is an obscure quote from a 1994 Vatican Justice Committee document which states "to impose a strict control on the sale of handguns and small arms. Limiting the purchase of such arms would certainly not infringe on the rights of anyone."  Hardly Church teaching.  The Holy Father is quoted as saying states "should" be armed for defense, the exact opposite of the article claims. 

And it is absolutely ridiculous when looking at the history of the Church to conclude that citizens don't have a right to arms.  Tell the Vendee to disarm, where virtually all the churches were ordered closed. Sacramental vessels were confiscated by soldiers and the people were forbidden to place a cross on their graves. Tell the Cristeros to disarm, whom had their government torture and murder those who would not deny the Fatih. 

The bureaucracy of the USCCB continues to do a disservice to law abiding Catholic citizens and further damages it's already waning credibility.  I expect knee jerk reactionism from the main street media, but from the USCCB(CNS is run by the USCCB)?  I think we can do better than that.