Gun Buy-backs and the Modernist Roman Catholic Church: Neither a Working Solution

A Roman Catholic pastor in Baltimore has recently promoted a gun buy-back scheme funded in part by the Archdiocese in an effort to curb violence in his city. Father Michael Murphy of St. Joseph’s Monastery Parish in Southwest Baltimore penned an Opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun touting his efforts. The good father states when asked if gun buy-backs are effective:

 “While I am not a researcher or criminologist, I tell everyone who asks me on my shoe-leather fundraising campaign: Yes. I’ve been a priest for 31 years and serve in the same Southwest Baltimore parish where I grew up, and what I know for sure is that the gun buyback and resource fair I’m planning for Aug. 5 really is about building a coalition for peace and channeling hope to our neighbors.” 

The no-questions-asked, drive-up event will offer $200 for handguns, rifles and shotguns and $300 for “assault weapons” while funds last. Where do I start to dissect this well-meaning but specious effort?

First, let’s examine the root causes of the violence in Baltimore: a near-complete breakdown of the traditional family structure (mostly due to other feel good policies of the Sixties that promulgated out-of-wedlock birthing and the general malaise of the welfare state); ineffectual policing due to a series of “woke” State’s Attorneys and ridiculous BLM antics; and, poor leadership within the Baltimore Police Department itself that has led to bad hiring and training practices. Guns are not causing the problem, Father Murphy, but violent street thugs – the immediate by-product of all of the above – are. I have been armed in Baltimore as a police officer and citizen and armed as a paratrooper in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. I felt much safer in the latter.  

Second, what really gives me pause is his following statement: 

“Our coalition for peace joins the Catholic Church in New York, Chicago and elsewhere in direct response to Pope Francis’ call that we get guns out of circulation. Each one that is turned in brings with it the potential to save a life.”  

Pope Francis and his fellow bishops are the ones who gutted the Roman Catholic Church with Vatican II. In this case the Pope does not appear to have the Faithful in mind. His woeful or willful ignorance on this topic only makes it easier for his erstwhile Globalists friends to catalogue, sterilize and conform humanity. Sadly, quoting Pope Francis about anything nowadays is tantamount to quoting the Democratic Party platform: climate change, pro-LGBTQ+ and anti-capitalistic ventures. 

Instead of funding, staffing and building parochial schools, the Archdiocese of Baltimore – as in most American cities – seemed more adept at enforcing lockdowns during COVID. Baltimore doesn’t need progressivism in a garb of a cleric, no matter how well-meaning. Rather, the City desperately needs real truth of Faith: heroic Faith like that shown by Saints Ignatius Loyola and Maximilian Kolbe. Heroic people like my First Grade teacher, Siter Mary Moira, SSND, who taught at a parochial school in Baltimore. As George Weigel so presciently stated in Letters to a Young Catholic, “She could teach a rock to read.” 

When I was a patrolman in the Baltimore Police Department in the Eighties police were generally respected even by the criminal element. Part of this respect came from the knowledge that we would use immediate and overwhelming force to thwart violent street thugs plaquing the community. Another part came from the schoolhouses and pulpits where students were taught to obey the law and have respect for the police and others’ person and property. 

Nowadays, schools and churches are too often used to regurgitate progressive ideologies rather than the eternal truths found in the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Faith. To preach and expend parish funds on gun buy-backs cheapens the sacred nature of the Church. And, unless it truly concerns a matter in contravention of our precious Faith, a priest’s personal views on such political issues are as weighty as Bruce Springsteen’s. 

Lastly, 200 bucks will not buy-back Glocks, “Assault Rifles” (another favorite misnomer of the Left) or anything other than junk pistols and rifles.  Moreover, history has shown that criminal elements are never in short supply of instrumentalities of violence. The only thing gun control hurts are peaceable folks’ freedoms. Any honest student of history knows this. So, like harping about carbon footprints or citing one’s personal pronouns, Father Murphy’s gun buy-back is simply virtue signaling at its finest.

There is no doubt in my mind that Father Murphy is well-meaning and sincere in his efforts and beliefs. But, that is the inherent problem within the Archdiocese of Baltimore and as it represents a microcosm of the greater Church. Sincere progressive beliefs have overshadowed the eternal truths of the Faith. Masses used to be packed when I was a child. But soon after the Traditional Latin Mass was replaced by the vernacular and services began to appear to be “Woodstock Light” rather than anything special, people stopped coming. Local parishes in Baltimore dried up and communities lost all the charm of ‘Charm City.” There may not be a direct correlation between this change and the spiral into violence that has subsumed Baltimore, but I strongly suspect that the Church’s morphing into Modernity is a strong contributing factor. At least much more so than the availability of firearms.