Oh... They've Been Shot!

Every American high school graduate who managed to stay awake for the 10-15 minutes that the standard curriculum devotes to the history of World War I can tell you who Archduke Francis Ferdinand was, and how his dramatic assassination was (at least according to the over-simplified account usually given) the catalyst that set Europe ablaze. While the high school curriculum for WWII is far more comprehensive, you are far less likely to have heard of King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, whose assassinations¹ contributed to the latter war's prologue .I found out about these historical figures, and their dramatic deaths, only after idly bouncing around from one video search to another on Youtube.

Although the instants of the bullets' penetration is not caught on film, and the ensuing melee prevents the photographer from focusing entirely on the dramatis personae, the footage is nonetheless suspenseful and mesmerizing. The closeup of King Alexander's face after he gets in the car , for instance, shows an uneasy man in need of deep breaths; as if he anticipates his demise and is now striving only to have his final minutes pass with some small measure of regal aplomb. The unscripted raw feeling is impossible to miss.

The unedited footage alone would be food for thought. What I find really fascinating, though, are the editorial perspectives of the Youtube clips in which the footage is set. The first clip is a Bulgarian nationalist propaganda film. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.



The accompanying tune is really catchy... and morbid. The lyrics are thus

True and extraordinary but the extraordinary happens, In a far away city of Marseilles there are united autonomists and brother Croatians. Now a king departs on a luxury ship, from the town of Dubrovnik and he sleeps peacefully while he sails the wide ocean and destiny waits in Marseilles. There he is honoured by Minister Barthou and his mighty generals; where they all gather to hold a council of war against poor Macedonia. The people they gather the crowds enormous and they chant "long may he live" but from the crowd a lone voice is heard "Death to tyrants". For there stands also Vlado Chernozemski all the way from Macedonia, he starts to run alongside the automobile in his hand a pistol is seen. King Alexander starts to plead and to Vlado he begs: "please Vlado, don't do this Vlado, don't kill me". to the King Vlado replies proud and true, understand this you tyrant, I've been sent by Vancho Mihailoff himself to deliver our verdict. Now stand up, stand up you Serbian dog I'm going to execute you. the pistol fires the King he expires long live Macedonia! Somewhere it is known, known and remembered throughout all of Europe, that the Macedonians' oppression will not be forgiven Death to all tyrants!

The comments givent in response to this video take the preceding lyrics to heart, to say the least, and make one relieved to know that that neck of the woods is still under intense UN scrutiny.

The other setting in which this footage is found is an old-school WWII-era news reel, shown here.




The melodramatic narrative is typical of news reels of the time, I think. What I find especially lovely is the locution at 1:58 : "Oh , they've been shot!" . One is reminded of "Oh! the humanity!" from the narrative of the Hindenburg disaster. I think the "Oh" is what makes the delivery sound contrived. A more dramatic, and more slowly rendered, "They've been shot," would seem to command more gravity. Afterall, most of the Bulgarian nationalist comments probably could be translated with something along the lines of "Oh, they've been shot! (yay!)"

¹Later forensic investigations would reveal that the death of Louis Barthou was most likely the result of a stray bullet from French law enforcement, a claim rejected by die-hard conspiracy theorists. For more details on this, see the Wikipedia article.

Whereof One Cannot Speak, Thereof One Must Remain Silent

The following US News and World Report blog entry is quite typical of much of the press coverage coming in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI having lifted a renegade Holocaust-denying bishops excommunication:

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2009/2/5/pope-should-excommunicate-holocaust-denying-bishop-williamson.html

For better or worse, you can't get excommunicated for being a liar or a moron, only for heresy (and for other specific nasties, like assaulting a bishop etc.). Denying the holocaust is certainly stupid and insensitive, but it dos not fit into the actually rather narrow class of offenses that canonically entail excommunication.

This whole row illustrates how problematic the secular press's coverage of fairly nuanced internal ecclesiastical matters can be. Here we have a journalist suggesting that he pope excommunicate someone permanently (this is not even permissible.. excommunication is only a medicinal remedy, the purpose of which is final reconciliation) and I somehow doubt Ms. Erbe bothered to crack open the Code of Canon Law. For her to give such sweeping criticism in this case exhibits about as much journalistic responsibilitt as suggesting the impeachment of a civil government officer without bothering to research the pertinent constitutional statutes.

It's time to turn off the hot air and for those who want to chime on this, including Chancellor Merkel, to calm down and do their research. Obviously, the pope's timing in this matter reveals a clear lack of political savvy ( I frankly find how very "human" he is to be refreshing), and certainly there could have been better catechesis put forth for the Catholic faithful (on excommunication in general) and more effective education of the press in this matter. Maybe once people put their critical thinking hats back on they might find some wisdom in Sean Cardinal Omalley's observation to the effect that the more clout the pope has with people like Bishop Williamson more likely he will be able to rein in their nonsense.

I am by no means a model Catholic and I have my own gripes with the church, but I will always defend the Catholic Church (or any other idea or institution) against intellectually dishonest criticism.