Here is a story to recall on this 100th anniversary of Armistice day. In 1917 Ben Salmon applied for conscientious objector status on the basis of his Catholic faith. Neither the US gov nor the Church recognized the right of Catholic COs. He was arrested in Jan 1918. 1/8

Following a military court martial he was sentenced to death—later reduced to 25 years in prison. Sent to Leavenworth and other prisons, he spent most time in solitary in punishment for his refusal to work. For six months he was held in a windowless cell over the sewer, 2/8

Fed on bread and water. Within months the war ended, yet his confinement continued. After 2 years he began a hunger strike. After several weeks they forced a tube down his throat and fed him milk. After several months of this he was judged insane and sent to a mental asylum. 3/8

His hometown paper called him “the slacker, the pacifist, the man with a yellow streak down his spine as broad as a country highway, who loves the German flag more than the Stars and Stripes.” 4/8

In light of his hunger strike the headline was: “Denver’s yellowist draft dodger plans to cheat justice.” Prison chaplains refused to offer him the Sacraments, accusing him of heresy. 5/8

In prison he wrote a long ms critiquing church teaching on just war and justifying his stand for nonviolence. “The justice of man cannot dethrone the justice of God.” He identified with the early Christian martyrs who would not worship idols. The new idol was militarism. 6/8

When it was clear he could not be kept alive forever on a diet of milk the authorities released him from prison in 1920. Well on this day should we remember the bravery and sacrifice of millions who fell in the Great War. 7/8

It is possible that Ben Salmon did more to defend freedom and the rights of conscience than any of those who fell on the Western Front, or the brave generals who commanded them. It is not just those in uniform who show courage, honor, sacrifice, and patriotism. 8/8