Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare

Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare
Friday, January 8, 2010
By Bryan Cones
By Ed Langlois Catholic News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Gary Ascher has a good life. Amiable and bright, he's in a long-lasting marriage. His children are high-achieving. He holds down a steady job making patterns for cast metal machinery.

But for more than 40 years, Ascher has yearned to pacify his conscience. A U.S. infantryman in Vietnam between November 1967 and November 1968, this gray-haired man with intense brown eyes wonders how he can be forgiven for taking lives.

"Yes, I was defending myself, but we were the initial aggressors," said the 62-year-old member of Holy Trinity Parish in Beaverton. "We were sent out in hopes we would be ambushed."

Ascher, who plays guitar for his church choir, was one of 15 people with links to the military who came to Our Lady of Peace Retreat House in Beaverton in December for a weekend on war and healing. Leaders of the session know that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan mean more retreats will be needed in the future.

Father Michael Drury, a former military chaplain from Montana, reminded the group that there is such a thing as a just war in Catholic teaching. It's a fight "when there is an unjust aggressor who cannot be stopped by any other means."
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Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare