WI: The Catholic Church Gives the Military Orders to the UN

[PsyckoSama]

I just had a random thought I want you guys to tell me what you think of and how would it work out.

Basically the idea is that during the formation the Catholic Church offers to restore the military orders to fighting formations and put them entirely under the command of the United Nations as a peacekeeping and humanitarian force for dealing with situations in areas the member nations might be reluctant to act.

Apolitical. Highly moral. Highly competent. Largely drawn from veterans of WW2.

 

[Polish Eagle]

Apolitical.

Unlikely. The Church, at this time, was intimately linked to anti-communist or quasi-fascist movements. Do you imagine that the Knights of Malta would be a particularly disinterested party in disputes between Salazar's Portugal and India? Or between the Koreas? Or in Vietnam?

The Church would not put additional military forces under the command of an organization that was essentially a consortium of the winning Liberal Democratic powers and Stalin's Russia.

And the UN founding states would rather see political Catholicism's teeth pulled entirely than give it any air of legitimacy. Consider that Eleanor Roosevelt was an important American delegate to the UN--and an enemy to organized political Catholicism in the US.

 

[Mike Stearns]

Reforming the military orders, never mind arming them, smacks of Crusade, which is something that the Church would dearly like everyone to forget.