Reform, Marine-style
In the 1970s, the Marine Corps was on the fast track to ruin. In many units, discipline was lax or broken. Young lieutenants would party with their subordinates, and smoked pot with them before training. Fights and racial tensions were even higher than in the ’50s and ’60s. By almost any measure, recruits entering the service were substandard. If these conditions persisted, it would have meant the end of the Corps.
Far more than the other services, the Marines are theoretically unnecessary to America’s defense. The Air Force has planes, and the Army has ground troops and artillery, but the sole reason the Marines still exist is because of its culture, the cause of its unique record of success. (The Corps has never been defeated in a battle — ever.)
With that culture disintegrating, a group of officers, almost all of them Vietnam veterans, decided that they had had enough. Generally, they were mid-level officers who were not about to see their Corps go down without a fight. To my knowledge, they created no institutions and formed no cabals; there was simply a common agreement that reform had to happen, and quickly.
Though their reforms did not happen overnight, in bureaucratic terms the changes happened rapidly. Drug users were identified through a rigorous testing program and kicked out. Other malcontents were unceremoniously removed. New recruits were held to higher educational and behavioral standards. Most importantly, the rank-and-file Marines began to police their own more than they had been, stopping dishonorable actions and encouraging martial virtues at the lowest level. These reforms were part of the general rehabilitation of the U.S. military in the 1980s, but the Corps was particularly successful. Though the other services have had intermittent problems attracting new recruits, the Marines have not missed a recruiting quota for two decades.
The Catholic Church in America has been experiencing a crisis similar to the Marines a generation ago. Because she is unsupported by taxes, she could theoretically disappear. Because of the protracted internal war after Vatican II, large swaths of the Church have been corrupted by worldly (and netherworldly) influences. Yet there are still plenty of people who care about her, and who will not let her die in our country.
The “current crisis” in our Church will end when enough bishops and priests decide they have had enough, and undertake reforms similar to the Marines: raise standards and kick out the main troublemakers. I have heard commentators — including people I trust — say that it will take a generation or two for the Church to recover. Nonsense. The goal should not be recovery, but purity and a renewed sense of mission; there is no reason we can’t turn things around by the end of the decade, or at least get a big start on it. Maybe it will take dozens of years for the Church to regain its former influence (an influence that was hardly overwhelming or universally accepted, mind you). I have no way of knowing. But there is no reason to proceed slowly, and no reason not to begin right now.
A suggestion for a first step: fire the people who caused the recent problems — those who publicly dissent from Catholic sexual morality. Immediately.