Amorality Must Have No Place in the Life of Catholics

American jingoistic nationalism was accepted uncritically by most Catholics at the height of the cold War seventy years ago. Catholic school children were taught—and I was one of those starting on September 10, 1956, when I began the afternoon session of Kindergarten at Saint Aloysius School in Great Neck, New York—that the American governmental was based on Catholic principles and that it was the duty of Catholics as citizens to accept whatever the government said without question and to obey without delay when instructed to do so.

Sadly, there are many places even within Catholic educational institutions under the supervision of clergy and religious who do not accept the false teachings of the “Second” Vatican Council, two of which, Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae, December 7, 1965, were, respectively, the conciliar sect’s rejection of Pope Saint Pius X’s condemnation of Sillonism in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1950, and of multiple papal condemnations of religious liberty, separation of Church and State, and Americanism itself, that still carry on with the jingoistic nationalism of the 1950s and, when circumstances arise, fully support American military adventurism around the world based solely upon the “word” of our elected officials.

Thus it is that many Catholics today are marching in lockstep with President Donald John Trump’s use of the American military on Saturday, January 3, 2026, the Octave of Saint John the Evangelist, to arrest the illicit President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife on charges of narco-terrorism and money-laundering that were the subject of a Federal grand jury indictment that was, Trump administration officials tell us, the “legal” basis for the stunning operation that whisked the Maduros out of Venezuela and onto the USS Iowa Jima in the Caribbean prior to be flown to Newburgh, New York, to face those charges in United States District Court for the Southern District of Court, where they pleaded not guilty yesterday, Monday, January 5, 2025, the Vigil of the Epiphany and the Commemoration of Pope Saint Telesphorus.

Nicolas Maduro is a Communist. He is a mass murderer who has tortured and repressed his own people with the help of agents from Communist Cuba. Following the example of his predecessor, the Communist named Hugo Chavez, who was elected in 1999 and died in 2014, Maduro has turned a once prosperous nation in one marked by want of basic necessities, including food and proper medical care, as he amassed millions upon millions of dollars for himself and his confederates. Maduro has also let loose known criminals, including the killers within the Tren de Argua gang that embedded themselves in many American cities and towns, and mentally ill people to travel to the United States of America, where they were welcomed by the administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Kamala Harris Emhoff and, on many occasions, flown surreptitiously under the cover of darkness to locales all over this country and then became the recipients of millions of dollars in social services, credit cards, and hotel rooms while being protected from prosecution for the crimes the committed in those localities.

Let me stipulate at the outset that Nicolas Maduro is not, as he proclaimed himself to be yesterday upon an arraignment, “a decent man.” He is a Communist tyrant who has imposed what New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called in his inaugural address on Thursday, January 1, 2026, the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the “warmth of collectivism” upon the Venezuelan people, causing many of them to flee to the United States of America to escape the suffocating nature of this “warmth of collectivism.”

Nicolas Maduro is an illegitimate ruler. His regime is thus illegitimate, something that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado, made clear in her speech accepting the Nobel Prize for Peace that was delivered by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, in her absence:

In May 2023, during a rally in the small town of Nirgua, a teacher named Carmen came up to me. She told me she had just run into her Jefa de Calle: a regime agent assigned to Carmen’s block who decides, house by house, who receives a monthly food bag and who is punished with hunger.

Shocked to see this woman there, Carmen had asked her “Why are you here?”

The Jefa de Calle replied: “My only son, who fled to Peru, asked me to be here today. He told me that if you win, he will return home. Tell me what I have to do.”

That day, love defeated fear.

Two weeks later, we reached Delicias, a tiny village swallowed by Colombian guerrillas and drug traffickers, where not even a chicken can be sold without criminal permission. No candidate had gone there since 1978.

As we climbed the mountain, I saw Venezuelan flags waving from every humble home. I naïvely asked if it was a national holiday. Someone whispered: “No. Here the flag stays hidden. Bringing it out is dangerous. Today people raised it to thank you for daring to come. You will leave… but we will remain, identified.”

Entire families stood up to the armed groups that ruled their lives. And when we sang the national anthem together, sovereignty returned in a single, fragile, defiant chorus.

That day, courage defeated oppression.

Our gatherings became intimate encounters of thousands.

We embraced, we cried, we prayed.

We understood our struggle was much more than electoral.

It was ethical: the struggle for truth.

Existential: the struggle for life. Spiritual: the struggle for good.

With less than a year before the presidential election, we had to unite every democratic force and restore trust in the vote. The primaries became that moment: a self-organized civic effort that built a nationwide citizen network unlike anything Venezuela had ever seen.

On October 22, 2023, against all odds, Venezuela awoke.

The diaspora, a third of our nation, reclaimed its right to vote.

The son who left cast his ballot alongside the mother who stayed.

Lines stretched for blocks. Turnout was so overwhelming that ballots ran out. We trusted the people, and they trusted us back.

What began as a mechanism to legitimize leadership became the rebirth of a nation’s confidence in itself. That day, I received a mandate: a responsibility that transcended any individual ambition. I felt humbled and profoundly aware of the weight with which I had been entrusted.

Threatened by that truth, the regime prohibited me from running for president. It was a harsh blow, but mandates belong to the people.

So we set out to find another candidate who could take my place.

Edmundo González Urrutia stepped forward: a calm, brave former diplomat. The regime believed he posed no threat.

They underestimated the resolve of millions of citizens — a plural, vibrant society that, in all its diversity, found unity in a common purpose. Communities, political parties, unions, students, and civil society stood together and worked as one so that the voice of a nation could be heard.

We were three months from Election Day, and almost no one knew his name.

But votes were not enough; we had to defend them. For over a year, we had been building the infrastructure to do so:

600,000 volunteers across 30,000 polling stations; apps to scan QR codes, digital platforms, diaspora call centers. We deployed scanners, Starlink antennas, and laptops hidden inside fruit trucks to the furthest corners of Venezuela. Technology became a tool for freedom.

Secret training sessions were held at dawn in church backrooms, kitchens, and basements, using printed materials moved across Venezuela like contraband.

Finally, Election Day arrived on July 28, 2024. Before dawn, lines wrapped around blocks. A quiet, trembling hope filled the air. Our live tracking showed turnout rising across every state and town. And then the electoral tally sheets— the famous actas, the sacred proof of the people’s will—began to appear: first by phone, then WhatsApp, then photographed, then scanned, and finally carried by hand, by mule, even by canoe.

They arrived from everywhere, an eruption of truth, because thousands of citizens risked their freedom to protect them.

Confronted with our overwhelming victory, the regime issued a desperate order: soldiers were to expel our volunteers from voting centers and block them from receiving the original tally sheets they were legally entitled to.

But the soldiers disobeyed.

Edmundo González won with 67% of the vote, in every state, city, village.

Every single tally sheet told the same story.

Within hours, they were digitized and published on a website for the world to see.

The dictatorship responded with terror.

2,500 people kidnapped, disappeared, tortured.

Homes marked.

Entire families taken as hostages.

Priests, teachers, nurses, students, anyone who shared a tally sheet, hunted down.

These are crimes against humanity, documented by the United Nations. State terrorism, deployed to bury the will of the people.

Some of the more than 220 children detained after the elections were electrocuted, beaten, and suffocated until they repeated the lie the regime needed, falsely incriminating themselves of being paid by me to protest. Women and girls in prison are right now being forced into sexual slavery, made to endure abuse in exchange for a family visit, a meal, or the chance to bathe.

And yet, the Venezuelan people did not surrender.

During these past sixteen months in clandestinity, we have built new networks of civic pressure and disciplined disobedience, preparing for Venezuela’s orderly transition to democracy. (Maria Corina Machado – Nobel Prize lecture, December 10, 2025.)

However, there are a lot of far worse mass murdering tyrants in the world than Nicolas Maduro, including the dictator of Communist China, Xi Jinping, the madman named Kim Jung Un of the so-called “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” and the mass murderer who is the Prime Minister of “America’s only ally in the Mideast,” Benjamin Netanyahu, who just happens to have an open arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on November 21, 2024, the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for crimes committed upon the people of Gaza from October 8, 2023, through at least May 20, 2024 (see Netanyahu | International Criminal Court).

President Donald John Trump is not talking about arresting Xi Jinping nor Kim Jong Un, and enforcing a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against his friend Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running out of creative ways to flatter Trump as the “best friend” the Zionist State of Israel has ever had, although he is talking about removing the drug-running President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and the dictator of Communist Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and is still making threatening noises about taking over Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, despite the fact that almost no one in Greenland wants to be taken over by the United States of America.

Now, before I attempt to apply the principles of the Just War Theory to the circumstances surrounding the attacks upon alleged narco-terrorist suspects in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean and the subsequent arrest of Nicolas Maduro and his wife three days ago, I want to urge the readers of this site not to get pulled into the trap of the false opposites as the domestic political fallout of Maduro’s arrest is seeing manifest hypocrisy across the entire spectrum of Judeo-Masonic naturalism.

First, there is the president himself, who ran against intervention in foreign wars and regime change. His dramatic about face has occurred because the man he once derided as “Little Marco” when running for the Republican presidential nomination for the first time in 2015 and 2016, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime neoconservative war hawk who was so outspoken against Nicolas Maduro that the latter is alleged to have plotted to assassinate him in 2017. Rubio has successfully gained the upper hand with the president and appears to have isolated those who oppose military interventions abroad such as Vice President James David Vance and has positioned himself as the president’s most trusted adviser. Trump the non-interventionist has become Trump the interventionist (see Marco Rubio to 'run' Venezuela with Maduro's inner circle).

Former United States Representative Majorie Taylor Greene, who gained Trump’s eternal enmity by advocating for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, called out Trump’s turnaround as follows:

WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., slammed the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, saying on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday that the operation was part of “the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of that doesn’t serve the American people.”

Greene argued that President Donald Trump and his administration “campaigned on Make America Great Again, that we thought was putting America first.”

“I want to see domestic policy be the priority that helps Americans afford life after four disastrous years of the Biden administration,” she told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, pointing to policies to prioritize jobs, housing and health care.

Her comments come as lawmakers grapple with the operation that captured Maduro and his wife and brought them to the U.S., with lawmakers’ support largely falling along party lines. Greene has previously opposed Trump administration policies that she argued contradicted “America First” principles.

In Sunday’s interview, she said that “we don’t consider Venezuela our neighborhood.”

“Our neighborhood is right here in the 50 United States, not in the Southern Hemisphere,” she said.

On Saturday, Trump was asked by a reporter how running Venezuela aligns with his “America First” agenda, after he said earlier that the U.S. would “run the country” until there was a transition to new leadership.

“I think it is because we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors,” Trump told the reporter. “We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world.”

Greene publicly spoke against the Maduro operation on Saturday as well. The congresswoman said in a post to X that Americans’ “disgust with our own government’s never-ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it.”

“This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,” she said in the post. “Boy were we wrong.”

Greene’s last day in Congress will be on Monday. She announced her resignation in November after a public falling-out with Trump, despite having previously been a loyal backer.

Throughout the public fights leading up to Greene’s resignation announcement, the congresswoman broke with him on issues including international relations, Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and Obamacare subsidies.

She has argued that Trump has not focused enough on domestic policy, saying later in a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview that “for an ‘America First’ president, the No. 1 focus should have been domestic policy, and it wasn’t. (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says Maduro capture is 'the same Washington playbook' that we're 'sick and tired of'.)

This is entirely correct, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is very responsible for turning his former political adversary and detractor into adopting a foreign policy that is somewhat dissimilar to that of the numbskull named George Walker Bush but has greater similarities to the abject amorality of the late President Richard Milhous Nixon, whose own National Security Adviser and later both Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Alfred Kissinger, based foreign policy and geopolitical strategy alone absent any moral considerations (see Henry Alfred Kissinger Worked Against the Interests of the Prince of Peace Throughout His Entire Life).

Just as Nixon and Kissinger used the “China Card” against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics fifty-four years ago when the two visited Red China in February of 1972, it appears that Trump and Rubio are using the Venezuelan situation to put an end to Communist rule in Cuba even if that means working with Maduro’s own thugs to accomplish their goals as long as those thugs do not get in the way of American economic and geopolitical strategic interests.

This is a long way from what Donald John Trump said in his second inaugural address on January 20, 2025, the Feast of Saints Fabian and Sebastian:

Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. (Applause.)
My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier. (The Inaugural Address – The White House.)

Dr. Ronald Paul, a libertarian with whom I have many disagreements, assessed the situation in Venezuela as being precisely comparable with the unjust, unconstitutional, and immoral American invasion and occupation of Iraq twenty-three years ago:

As was the case the morning after “Shock and Awe” signaled the start of the Iraq war, many are cheering the US military raid on Venezuela and capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro. Overwhelming US military power – and likely some bribed Venezuelan officials – ensured that the operation was swift and dramatic.

This was not a war, we were told. It was just a surgical operation to remove a criminal dictator and restore democracy to the country. American oil companies would soon get even richer exploiting the country’s vast oil reserves. This time it will be different!

If all of this sounds familiar that’s because it is the same narrative used each time the US has launched a “regime change” operation this century.

The Iraq war would be a “cake walk,” they swore. Skeptics were ridiculed. The staged demolition of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad marked the triumph of that short US military operation.

The “liberation” of Iraq was to be the first domino in the coming revolution throughout the Middle East, we were promised. Just weeks into the operation, then-President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier with a huge “Mission Accomplished” banner behind him.

Then everything fell apart. The US could not “run” Iraq. It could only use brutal force – and torture – to give the impression that we would soon turn the corner. Victory was at hand. Just send more troops and spend a little more money.

But none of it did the trick. None of it worked.

In the end, the US sunk trillions into the failed “nation-building” operation in Iraq and upwards of a million people died including thousands of US troops.

And here we go again.

Despite being elected on promises of “no new wars” and “no nation-building,” President Trump used military force against Venezuela, kidnapped the country’s president, and declared that “we” would be running the country from now on.

After the operation in Venezuela, President Trump took a “Mission Accomplished” victory lap of his own in a press conference where he declared that US oil companies would return to Venezuela under US protection and that we would “run” Venezuela for the time being.

“The oil companies are going to spend money… we are going to get reimbursed,” he said.

But there’s more to come.

President Trump’s Venezuela raid and kidnapping occurred just as Israeli prime minister Netanyahu was departing the country. According to press reports, Netanyahu was in town to persuade President Trump to send the US military back into Iran. Israeli officials have openly stated that the US operation in Venezuela is the warm-up for the next round of US “regime change” – in Iran.

Warmongering US Senator Lindsey Graham has taken to the television news programs to urge President Trump to continue on to Cuba and then Iran. President Trump seemed to agree, stating that, “we have to do it again. We can do it again, too. Nobody can stop us.”

Venezuela was just another neocon operation. First comes propaganda demonizing the country and its leadership. Then comes saber-rattling and threats of war. The operation is launched and the “objectives” are quickly reached. Or so they claim. But then it all falls apart. We become poorer as the special interests get richer. And those we claim to be liberating suffer worse than under the previous regime.

Will we ever learn? (Regime Change and Nation-Building Are Back!)

This is entirely correct.

American interventionism, regime change, nation-building, and social engineering usually winds up very badly, and with deadly consequences.

Second, there is the hypocrisy of the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, Charles Schumer (D-New York), who lambasted the forty-fifth president of the United States of America, Donald John Trump, in February of 2020 for not taking action to remove Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela before condemning the forty-seventh president of the United States of America, Donald John Trump, for removing Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela:

Nearly six years ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., delivered a Senate floor speech slamming President Donald Trump's State of the Union remarks in 2020, including ripping the president because Venezuelan dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro was still in power.

Fast-forward to the U.S. arrest of Maduro on sweeping narcotics charges under the second Trump administration. Now Schumer is accusing the Trump administration of potentially sparking an "endless war" in Venezuela with Maduro's removal from power.

"Maybe his best metaphor was his claim to bring democracy to Venezuela. There’s a big policy there. It flopped," Schumer said in February 2020, just a day after Trump delivered his State of the Union address touting that Maduro's dictatorship would be "smashed and broken."

"The president brags about his Venezuela policy? Give us a break. He hasn’t brought an end to the Maduro regime," Schumer continued. "The Maduro regime is more powerful today and more entrenched today than it was when the president began his anti-Maduro. Same thing with North Korea, same thing with China, same thing with Russia. Same thing with Syria."

Trump invited Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to Washington, D.C., to attend his State of the Union address, identifying him as the "legitimate" leader of Venezuela as Maduro clung to power. Guaidó declared himself interim president after Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly said Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

"The United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro," Trump said in his speech before pointing to Guaidó's presence at the joint session of Congress. "Maduro is an illegitimate ruler, a tyrant who brutalizes his people. But Maduro’s grip on tyranny will be smashed and broken."

Schumer said in his Senate speech the next day that Guaidó's presence at the State of the Union was proof Trump's foreign policies were not effective, or the opposition leader would have been in the president’s palace and not D.C.

Trump confirmed a successful U.S. military operation in Venezuela Saturday morning that led to the capture of Maduro and his wife, who were swiftly transported to the U.S. to face criminal trial in New York. The Venezuelan dictator was charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Maduro, as well as other officials in the regime, were indicted in 2020 under the first Trump administration for allegedly operating a large-scale narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking conspiracy. Maduro denied the charges and was not arrested to stand trial. His 2026 charges expanded on the 2020 indictment.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, first reported to court Monday.

News of the operation spread like wildfire across the world Saturday, as many Democratic lawmakers took issue with the administration carrying out the strike and capture without first notifying Congress. Schumer was among prominent Democrats voicing outrage over the operation, saying it threw open the doors to an "endless war."

"Maduro is a horrible, horrible person, but you don't treat lawlessness with other lawlessness, and that's what's happened here," Schumer told "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos Sunday. "There is no authority... they did not just do ships off the water. They went inside Venezuela, bombed civilian as well as military places, and it's a violation of the law to do what they did without getting the authorization of Congress."

Trump campaigned against over and over and over again was no more endless wars. And right now, we're headed right into one, with no barriers, with no discussion."

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer's office and the White House regarding Schumer's 2020 remarks but did not immediately receive replies.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital when asked about Schumer's 2020 comments that "Chuck Schumer’s Trump Derangement Syndrome is so overpowering that he will flip-flop on anything to attack President Trump – even bringing narcoterrorist Nicolas Maduro to justice."

"The Biden administration and over 60 countries have recognized Maduro’s rule as illegitimate, but only President Trump had the courage to hold him accountable for his crimes of killing countless Americans with illicit narcotics," Kelly continued.

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy also criticized the Trump administration in 2019 for not intervening in Venezuela as Guaidó declared himself interim president and protests broke out on the streets of the nation.

"If Trump cared about consistency, he would make the realist case for intervention in Venezuela (getting rid of Maduro is good for the United States) rather than trying to pretend his Administration all of the sudden cares about toppling anti-democratic regimes," Murphy wrote on X at the time. "Finally, don't get me wrong - I support a U.S. foreign policy that cares deeply about democracy. I think we are better off pressing for political reform everywhere we do business or have interests, not just the place where the guy who controls the oil doesn't like us."

Murphy said Sunday during an appearance on CNN that "there are evil, brutal dictators all over the world. That does not give the American president the right to invade those countries, in large part because we have seen how this script plays out." (Schumer criticizes Trump Venezuela militarry operation after Maduro arrest.)

Perhaps it should also be mentioned that both former President Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Soetoro and former President in Name Only Joseph Robinette “Accounts Receivable” Biden, Jr., placed bounties for the removal of Nicolas Maduro. Hypocrisy always reigns supreme in the world of the false opposites of Judeo-Masonic naturalism.

Thus, good readers, do not go down the rabbit holes of the politics of the Maduro arrest but focus on how we, as Catholics, ought to assess the situation in light of the Just War Theory while being mindful that not everyone will come to the same conclusions as these are matters of judgment upon which men of good will can disagree legitimately.

An Attempt to Apply the Principles of the Just War Theory to American Intervention in Venezuela

There must be a wound to justice that poses a real and imminent threat to the good order of nations and/or to the territorial integrity or well-being of innocents by an aggressor. The threat must be real, not imaginary, not concocted for political purposes. In this instance, there was no real and imminent threat to the good order of nations nor to the territorial integrity of the United States of America. While it is true that Maduro is a mass murderer who flooded American cities with hallicongenic drugs, it is not the case that the United States of America has the legal or moral authority to enforce a federal indictment against the de facto head of state of a foreign nation. This is pure realpolitik that carries it with the false notion that the United States of America has “moral authority” to act against foreign leaders when it permits the slaughter of the innocent preborn by surgical and chemical means and as it promotes the sin of Sodom under the cover of civil law, to mention nothing about the substantial military and economic assistance that has been given to the mass murdering, genocidal government of the Zionist State of Israel. The situation in Venezuela is principally about the nation’s oil reserves to the benefit of American petroleum companies whose property and assets were expropriated by the late Hugo Chavez in 2007 and 2009, not about drug trafficking (see, for example, Trump offers first timeline for US oil company operations in Venezuela. Moreover, the Trump administration’s actions serve as an open invitation to the Red Chinese to invade Taiwan and overthrow the government of the Republic of [Free] China that is a land of genuine freedom and prosperity.
All peaceful means to avoid armed hostilities must be exhausted. Diplomatic efforts to avert war must be genuine. It was the authority of the Vicar of Christ himself during the Middle Ages and various times thereafter who attempted to broker disputes in order to avoid war. We are told that Nicolas Maduro had tried to engage in negotiations but was told by President Trump that it was “too late, time’s up.” As noted earlier, this decision was that of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is now “running” Venezuela along with officials of the Maduro regime without, it should be noted, any effort thus far of securing free elections of the sort that overwhelmingly defeated Nicolas Maduro in 2024 does not seem at the forefront of American considerations at this time. This action was not taken as a regrettable last sort.
A duly constituted authority must make the determinations concerning the waging of war. This means that a legitimate governing authority guided by right intentions and right principles must be in charge of the decision-making process. The United States of America has no authority to act as the policeman of the Americas except in the minds of jingoistic American exceptionalism. Trump’s policies in the Americas are similar to those of Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, John Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and many of those who followed thereafter. Lyndon Baines Johnson, who sent troops into the Dominican Republic in 1965 as part of “Operation Power Pack.” Moreover, I do not agree with those who have argued the legality of the recent American action in Venezuela on the basis of Geoge Herbert Walker Bush’s orders for the arrest of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989 as did not believe that the action was constitutional or legal at the time despite what American courts subsequently decided. Presidents cannot unilaterally decide to undertake this kind of military action without Congressional authorization except in those cases where a genuine emergency exists, and such was not the case on January 3, 2026.
The goals of a war must be well-defined and have a reasonable chance of being realized. In other words, there must be a reasonable chance for success in the pursuit of narrowly defined goals. Goals are to be defined narrowly so as to limit the harm caused by a needlessly protracted war, yes, even when a nation is prosecuting a just cause. No one in the Trump administration has stated clearly what the long term goals of the operation in Venezuela are except that the American petroleum companies are going to get their assets returned to them, which is not in and of itself a justification for intervening in another nation.
The good end being sought must not be outweighed by the foreseen evil to be done. This is known as the Catholic principle of proportionality, which states that a good end can be rendered unjust to pursue if a judgment is made that the amount of the foreseen evil to be done in the prosecution of a just war will cause greater evils than the one the war is being waged to eradicate. Does anyone know how “cooperative” officials in the Maduro regime are going to be with Rubio even as they issue orders to roundup any and all Venezuelans who might have cooperated in the so-called “Operation Absolute Resolve”?
As far as is possible, noncombatants must never be deliberately targeted in warfare. The United States has a mixed record when it comes to the realization of this part of the Just War Theory. Our military forces have tried to use remarkable restraint in many instances. Other times, however, they have not. William Tecumseh Sherman used raw terrorism against civilian population centers as he cut a swath of fiery destruction from the Atlantic Ocean to Atlanta during the War between the States. The government of the United States of America aided the anti-Catholic Masonic revolutionaries in Mexico. Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki (the latter two of which were known to contain the highest concentrations of Catholics in Japan) were bombed during World War II. Something less than laser precision caused thousandsof civilian casualties during the Gulf War and during our long and immoral presence in Afghanistan, which commenced on October 7, 2001, and during and after the American invasion and occupation of Iraq on March 20, 2003. In the present instance, no civilians have thus far been involved. However, what if the Maduro officials start enforcing their threat to round up civilians suspecting as aiding the capture of Maduro?
A just cessation to hostilities must be realized as soon as possible. Given the uncertainties and volatility of the situation in Venezuelan, there is no guarantee that American troops will not be required on the ground in Venezuela if the Maduro officials do not, in the words of Trump and Rubio, “play ball.” What constitutes the end of American involvement in Venezuela? Or is this just a prelude to other actions in the Americas and Iran that are to follow?

Mind you, these are simply my own judgments and conclusions, but I do not see what is to prevent other nations from seizing foreign leaders at will if they are under some kind of indictment other than in the countries of which they lead if they use some legal pretext to mask their real intentions of exploiting an invaded nation's natural resources.

The bottom line for Donald John Trump has always been the bottom line, financially speaking, and that matters more than any other consideration, something that legal scholar Jonathan Turley pointed out undermined the original rationale for seizing Nicolas Maduro three days ago:

It can fairly be said that the most precarious jobs in the world are those of a golf ball collector at a driving range, a mascot at a Chuck E. Cheese and a Trump administration lawyer.

That was evident at the press conference yesterday as President Donald Trump blew apart the carefully constructed narrative presented earlier for the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Some of us had written that Trump had a winning legal argument by focusing on the operation as the seizure of two indicted individuals in reliance on past judicial rulings, including the decisions in the case of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stayed on script and reinforced this narrative. Both repeatedly noted that this was an operation intended to bring two individuals to justice and that law enforcement personnel were part of the extraction team to place them in legal custody. Rubio was, again, particularly effective in emphasizing that Maduro was not the head of state but a criminal dictator who took control after losing democratic elections.

However, while noting the purpose of the capture, Trump proceeded to declare that the United States would engage in nation-building to achieve lasting regime change. He stated that they would be running Venezuela to ensure a friendly government and the repayment of seized U.S. property dating back to the government of Maduro's mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

This city is full of self-proclaimed Trump whisperers who rarely score above random selection in their predictions. However, there are certain pronounced elements in Trump’s approach to such matters. First, he is the most transparent president in my lifetime, with prolonged (at times excruciatingly long) press conferences and a brutal frankness about his motivations. Second, he is unabashedly and undeniably transactional in most of his dealings. He is not ashamed to state what he wants the country to get out of the deal.

In Venezuela, he wants a stable partner, and he wants oil.

Chávez and Maduro had implemented moronic socialist policies that reduced one of the most prosperous nations to an economic basket case. They brought in Cuban security thugs to help keep the population under repressive conditions, as a third fled to the United States and other countries.

After an extraordinary operation to capture Maduro, Trump was faced with socialist Maduro allies on every level of the government. He is not willing to allow those same regressive elements to reassert themselves.

The problem is that, if the purpose was regime change, this attack was an act of war, which is why Rubio struggled to bring the presser back to the law enforcement purpose. I have long criticized the erosion of the war declaration powers of Congress, including my representation of members of Congress in opposition to Obama’s Libyan war effort.

The fact, however, is that we lost that case. Trump knows that. Courts have routinely dismissed challenges to undeclared military offensives against other nations. In fairness to Trump, most Democrats were as quiet as church mice when Obama and Hillary Clinton attacked Libya’s capital and military sites to achieve regime change without any authorization from Congress. They were also silent when Obama vaporized an American under this "kill list" policy without even a criminal charge. So please spare me the outrage now.

My strong preferences for congressional authorization and consultation are immaterial. The question I am asked as a legal analyst is whether this operation would be viewed as lawful. The answer remains yes.

The courts have previously upheld the authority of presidents to seize individuals abroad, including the purported heads of state. This case is actually stronger in many respects than the one involving Noriega. Maduro will now make the same failed arguments that Noriega raised. He should lose those challenges under existing precedent. If courts apply the same standards to Trump (which is often an uncertain proposition), Trump will win on the right to seize Maduro and bring him to justice. (Trump declares US will run Venezuela operations after Maduro capture.)

While, as noted earlier, I disagreed with the seizure of Manuel Noriega in 1989 and with the subsequent court decisions justifying it jsut as I disagree with the seizure of Nicolas Maduro. However, Donald John Trump did undermine his own rationale for seizing Maduros as the whole enterprise has been about regime change to regain control of Venezuela's oil reserves, not about drug trafficking. It is as though Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller never left the scene as his Standard Oil basically controlled Venezeuelan government and politics for decades. Too bad for Trump that he came to prominence in New York shortly before Rockefeller died on Janaury 26, 1979. They would have been great allies for a number of reasons.

Amorality, however, can never have any place in the life of a Catholic as we call to mind these words of Pope Pius XI in his first encyclical letter, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922:

Because the Church is by divine institution the sole depository and interpreter of the ideals and teachings of Christ, she alone possesses in any complete and true sense the power effectively to combat that materialistic philosophy which has already done and, still threatens, such tremendous harm to the home and to the state. The Church alone can introduce into society and maintain therein the prestige of a true, sound spiritualism, the spiritualism of Christianity which both from the point of view of truth and of its practical value is quite superior to any exclusively philosophical theory. The Church is the teacher and an example of world good-will, for she is able to inculcate and develop in mankind the "true spirit of brotherly love" (St. Augustine, De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, i, 30) and by raising the public estimation of the value and dignity of the individual's soul help thereby to lift us even unto God.

43. Finally, the Church is able to set both public and private life on the road to righteousness by demanding that everything and all men become obedient to God "Who beholdeth the heart," to His commands, to His laws, to His sanctions. If the teachings of the Church could only penetrate in some such manner as We have described the inner recesses of the consciences of mankind, be they rulers or be they subjects, all eventually would be so apprised of their personal and civic duties and their mutual responsibilities that in a short time "Christ would be all, and in all." (Colossians iii, 11)

44. Since the Church is the safe and sure guide to conscience, for to her safe-keeping alone there has been confided the doctrines and the promise of the assistance of Christ, she is able not only to bring about at the present hour a peace that is truly the peace of Christ, but can, better than any other agency which We know of, contribute greatly to the securing of the same peace for the future, to the making impossible of war in the future. For the Church teaches (she alone has been given by God the mandate and the right to teach with authority) that not only our acts as individuals but also as groups and as nations must conform to the eternal law of God. In fact, it is much more important that the acts of a nation follow God's law, since on the nation rests a much greater responsibility for the consequences of its acts than on the individual. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

Those who are war with Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by means of persisting in states of Mortal Sins, objectively speaking, even though they themselves may not realize this can never be instruments of the only peace that matters, the true peace of Christ the King that resides in the souls of those who are peace with Him by means of Sanctifying (Habitual) Grace.

The “kings” of this world act in total disregard to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church as they act immorally and dream of receiving earthly awards and recognitions rather than working for true rewards of eternal life after having pursued the common temporal good in light of man’s Last End, the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost for all eternity.

Ah, but there have been many kings, starting with Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, who have bowed down before to adore the King of Kings Himself, Christ the King, on this very day the Feast of the Epiphany:

"We have seen His star, and are come to adore Him."--Matt, ii, 2.

The festival of the Epiphany, also called the Feast of the Holy Three Kings, is one of the most ancient feasts of the Church of God; and from the very earliest ages was celebrated with special rejoicing by the children of the Catholic Church. We find the cause for this in the fact that this feast is associated with the remembrance of the greatest graces in which the faithful in every nation of the earth rejoice,--namely, their call to the only saving faith, the holy Catholic Church.

We learn from sacred history, that in the early days of Christianity this feast was celebrated with greater solemnity even than Christmas, the birthday of our Lord himself; for as the Church exclaims in her joy on Holy Saturday: "Of what use would it be for us to be born if we had not been made partakers of the benefits of redemption?" So might we cry out: "Of what use to us would it be to possess all the goods and pleasures of the world, if the grace of being called to the true faith had not been granted to us through the mercy of God?"

The three kings with their attendants, prostrate at the feet of the Infant Jesus, were the firstlings of the heathens who acknowledged Jesus, and entered His Church. As we reflect upon the great happiness vouchsafed to them, the question forces itself upon us: "Why do not all nations likewise enjoy a participation in their happiness?" My answer is: "Because they do not look upward with the same love of truth to the star of the Magi;" and this, as I understand it, I will explain today.

O Mary, Queen of heaven and earth, Mother of the King of kings, obtain for us, from your divine Son, hearts deeply penetrated with the love of truth! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, for the greater glory of God!

Christ, before whom the three Magi knelt, calls himself the King of Truth. He calls His kingdom, the Church, a kingdom of truth; consequently, whosoever will enter His kingdom, and find therein salvation must love truth and seek it; then he will find it, follow it, and through its influence attain salvation. It was thus that the hearts of the Magi were disposed; therefore they learned to know Jesus and the truth contained in His Church, to live in her spirit, propagate the kingdom of Christ, and at last to enter the realm of His glory.

They saw the star, knew its signification, and followed it. Why? They loved truth. Had not this been the case, the annunciation of the birth of our Saviour through the star would not have excited so much interest in them. Had they not loved truth more than the goods and pleasures of this world, which, as crowned heads, they possessed in abundance, they would not have undertaken, at the cost of so much self-sacrifice, to seek for Christ. But they were more interested in obtaining the truth of salvation, in beholding the coming Teacher of nations, in learning to honor and adore Him, than in all the treasures of the world. Their resolution to search for Him was sublimely heroic.

If their eagerness for knowledge of heavenly things had not existed to so great a degree in their hearts, they might have thought within themselves: "It is well that He is born; He will surely arrange to come to us to teach us, or He will send some one else in His place. Besides, He is still a child, and can not converse with us, wherefore, then, should we undertake a journey connected with so many difficulties, and, perhaps, expose ourselves to the derision and mockery of the people of Jerusalem, to whom, it may be, the star did not appear?" All these circumstances, however, were of no weight with the three Magi, in whom eager desire and ardent love overpowered all other considerations, and they entered upon their journey.

The three sages searched for truth with assiduity and fearlessness. "Where is He who is to be born the King of the Jews?" Thus they inquired, full of confidence that their search would be rewarded, let the population of Jerusalem think what they would; let them mock and ridicule; did they but know the name of the place where the Messiah was to be born, according to the declaration of the prophets, they would find the way thereto, even if they could gain no companions for the journey, which it would seem was eventually the case, as they left Jerusalem alone. The star again appeared, and remained over the place wherein Mary abode with the child. They fall down before the divine Infant, and oh! with what joyful sentiments of adoration, love, and gratitude do they offer Him their homage! But, on the other hand, how graciously did the new-born babe bless them, and replenish their hearts with the power and unction of His grace; how did it strengthen them in their resolution to follow His inspirations, to live and die for Him, and to spread His kingdom among their people all over the earth!

The three Magi searched for the truth, found it, and returned, obedient to the admonition of an angel, by another road to their respective homes, thus to escape the snares of Herod, and to fulfill the will of God. It was thus, that these first fruits of faith in countries over which the dark cloud of heathenism still rested, gave the example unto all the children of men, how to know Christ and to enter heaven. And what is the reason that, up to this time, this was not done in such a manner as the mercy of God intended, for the evils of all mankind?

I answer by the assertion that love for truth is, in general, rare among men. They love darkness better than light,--delusion, which flatters them, more than the truth, which points to the exercise of duty, which teaches the spirit of Christian self-denial, which inspires contempt of human consideration, united with that fidelity which assures for us perseverance unto the end.

The gospel for today affirms that Herod, and with him all Jerusalem, was terrified at the message of the three Magi, that the Saviour, the King and Deliverer of the human race, was born. Herod was afraid, and trembled lest he should lose his throne. The scribes and Pharisees also, those whitened sepulchers of evil, as Christ called them, instead of rejoicing, were filled with alarm; for they felt, and truly, that the promised Messiah would penetrate their interior, and censure their hypocrisy and malice.

The people principally imitate those who have the power to govern or command them, and generally yield to the stronger will of men whose knowledge is superior to their own. They also felt disappointed, because they expected an earthly Messiah, who would elevate them to be the mightiest nation in the world, and endow them with all temporal advantages, riches, and pleasures. Yet now they hear He has entered this world without His advent being perceived, and, whilst the scribes remain in entire ignorance of His birth, men in the East are said to have seen His star, which nevertheless was not beheld by a single person in Jerusalem.

Love for truth was lacking in those who thus expressed themselves, and, therefore, they remained incredulous and indifferent, and did not even trouble themselves so far as to guide or direct the Magi to the vicinity of Bethlehem; nay, they probably regarded them as visionaries and dreamers. Behold here, as in a mirror, the character of the infidel, especially of those who, with premeditation, become infidels,--who, although born of Catholic parents, and brought up in the Church of God, later on, play the infidel, and pretend to waver in faith.

Such do not love truth, but the desire of their hearts is to find out what might make them rich and happy in this world. As regards their duties towards God--that is, with respect to religion--the generality of men are satisfied to live and die in that belief in which they were born, and do not inquire whether their religion is really the true religion.

Yes, a great portion, particularly of the so-called learned men, are afraid to recognize the truth, that they may not feel urged to confess and live according to its precepts. And, since they know that the word of truth condemns their sinful actions, and threatens them with terrible chastisements from God, they hate it, and wish that they could totally extirpate the kingdom of Christ on earth. If they, at times, arrive at the conviction that all their endeavors in this regard are Fruitless,--and if, at certain times, the voice of conscience whispers loudly that the threatenings of the Lord might one day be verified in them on account of their infidelity, then, in secret, like Herod, they tremble, and a fear, which for the time can not be stilled, fastens upon their souls.

Certainly they endeavor to appear, with all this, entirely different from what they are, and, therefore, become hypocrites, as Herod was. They assume the appearance of respecting God and His commands, Christ and His doctrines, but their actions do not correspond with their demeanor, for they persecute the Church with the direct intention to destroy her. Thereat they are filled with the suspicion which terrified the heart of Herod, that the Church would be dangerous to their plans. This is especially the case with rulers of the present day and with infidel politicians, although the experiences of the nineteenth century should long ago have opened their eyes, and forced them to see that the Holy Church not alone in spiritual, but in temporal affairs, exercises a most beneficial influence upon the state. They think to conquer by their cunning, just as Herod thought, but God's providence brings them to disgrace. I point especially to one propensity in the character of Herod, a fit type of this worthy class. He became a tyrant, and committed infanticide.

This also resembles, especially in our days, the conduct of the enemies of the truths of faith. Such men, if they succeed in grasping the reins of government, proceed to persecution, and as they are endowed with an evil prudence, they recognize that nothing can promote their ideas better than to pervert the Catholic youth to their dangerous ideas, and seek to destroy in their hearts the life of holy faith. Therefore their solicitude to impede the influence of the Church in the education of youth, with which that infanticide, of which Herod was guilty, is not to be compared.

Herod benefited the souls of the Holy Innocents against their will, whilst the Herods in our days corrupt the youth and destroy their souls. What crime! Therefore, children of the Church, thank God for your call to the only true Church--to the holy faith! Like the Magi, love the truth with all sincerity of heart. This disposition of heart is a pledge of victory over Lucifer, the "liar from the beginning." Hold every-where and always to this maxim of life: " Defend truth, and it will defend you and save you through Jesus Christ, the incarnate truth."--Amen! (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., First Sermon for the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, January 6.)

We, like the three Kings of the Orient, must always bow the knee to adore Christ the King as we reject categorically the cunning of this world whose plots and schemes always come a cropper despite their protestations that the latest scheme and the latest plot will turn out “differently” than those in the past. Such is the pride of those who do not know Christ the King as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through His true Church.

Flying unto maternal care and intercession of Our Lady on this Feast of the Epiphany of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to the Gentiles, may every Rosary we pray help make reparation for our own sins and to plant a few seeds for the conversion of the men, including the leaders of men, and their nations to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true peace within or among nations, including here in the United States of America, Venezuela, or anywhere else in the world.

Vivat Christus Rex!

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