As a Catholic, I was dismayed that Catholic Health, an agency that is supposed to be focused on healing, is one of the sponsors of an event that could be very unhealthy — the FourLeaf Air Show at Jones Beach. All you needed to do is notice the military recruiting tent on the beach to realize that a core idea of this spectacle is recruitment.

The show is not just about stunt planes. They are weapons of war. At Jones Beach, you don’t see what happens when they fly in combat. Survivors of war often suffer lost limbs, post-traumatic stress disorder, poisoning from Agent Orange in Vietnam or burn pits in Iraq, and many other health problems, including suicidal ideation — and suicide itself.

Pope Leo XIV said in his first Sunday address in Rome: “No more war!” As a young priest, he rejected efforts by the Peruvian military to recruit young seminarians. If our pope rejects wars and recruitment, why can’t Catholic Health? And how much is this agency paying to co-sponsor this recruitment spectacle, at the same time as Catholic Health is laying off 1% of its workforce?

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