A Martyr for Peace

A week before George W. Bush arrived in Rome for their first meeting, Benedict XVI put his signature to a document proclaiming the Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter a Christian martyr for refusing to serve in an unjust war, such as Benedict and John Paul the Great insisted the Bush war against Iraq has been from the beginning. The beatification will take place on October 26 -- just about the time that some observers expect a departing, lame-duck President Bush to launch a Pearl Harbor style pre-emptive attack (perhaps a nuclear one) against Iran.