My Francis
Francis Boyle had a remarkable legacy including using the Genocide Convention and trying to stop the making of dangerous pathogens.
Biden Claims He Wants a 'Ceasefire' in Gaza—But What's The Catch? w/ Prof. Francis Boyle — From last June, interview with Rachel Blevins.
In her piece on Pope Francis, “Pope Francis’s Legacy Of Love And Peace”, my friend Kathy Kelly notes that he took the name after “Saint Francis, known as one who lived on the margins, who discarded his worldly clothes, and who kissed the lepers.”
My view of Pope Francis is less generous than Kathy’s. I think the pope could do quite a bit more than he did.
But my mind can’t but keep going to another Francis, who I think did virtually all he could for justice and peace, which was a great deal.
Francis Boyle died on Jan. 30 and I’ve thought about him every day since; often feeling like I’ve lost a limb since I can’t swap emails with him, getting his read on the latest news, as I did with him for decades on a nearly daily basis.
Reading old emails is like a mammoth history. Here’s one from New Year’s Day of this year:
To his everlasting credit, Pope Francis extended de jure diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine. Previously, when it had been announced that Pope John Paul II was going to extend de jure diplomatic recognition to Israel I did everything humanly possible to stop it. I sent a Memo to Arafat on it and the PLO took steps to try to stop it. Doctor Haidar [Abdel-Shafi] agreed with me too and he weighed in with Arafat. At least Pope Francis rectified the Church’s terrible injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian People by JP2. For that he must get enormous credit. Fab.
Not that Francis Anthony Boyle was always smitten with Pope Francis. He criticized him, sometimes in public, but usually in private. And while he was a furious critic of US empire, he never idealized any of those seeming to oppose it.
He was a lawyer extraordinaire, a historian, had a knowledge of some of the sciences, would read and write poetry and fought for everyone from the Palestinians to the indigenous Hawaiians; from Plowshare activists who break into nuclear weapons facilities to conscientious objectors.
He was someone who graduated atop the most prestigious, establishment programs at Harvard and then used his capacities against the system.
He also happened to be a remarkably sincere Christian. He actually believed in what he said he believed in. He believed in God. He believed in international law.
Years ago, I got an angry email from Francis. He thought I should have done a news release for accuracy.org about some subject or another and he was mad. So he gave me a piece of his mind.
I emailed back to him and told him that my then-partner was just diagnosed with cancer and I was not able to deal with things as well as I ordinarily might.
He immediately replied, sending best wishes, and telling me he’d pray for her, and I thanked him.
About five or ten minutes later, he sent me another email. It just said “Done.”
He had literally, in the moment, sat down, prayed for Emily’s health and then reported when he had finished.
Befittingly, it was Emily who introduced me to the book Watership Down (text, PDF), which reminds me much of Francis. It’s about a band of rabbits and their quest for a decent society. At the center of it was a prophetic rabbit named Fiver.
When Fiver saw a sign post declaring that a new “development” was to be built atop their original warren, he foresaw the coming danger, sharing with his brother Hazel:
‘Oh, Hazel! This is where it comes from! I know now — something very bad! Some terrible thing — coming closer and closer.’
He began to whimper with fear.
‘What sort of thing — what do you mean? I thought you said there was no danger?’
‘I don’t know what it is,’ answered Fiver wretchedly. ‘There isn’t any danger here, at this moment. But it’s coming — it’s coming. Oh, Hazel, look! The field! It’s covered with blood!’
Francis could often see the signs that others ignored. He could see the blood coming well before it was apparent to most.
Moreover, he could often find a remedy to prevent disaster — if people would listen.
We have a mixed up sense of prophecy in our culture. Maybe Hollywood is to blame, maybe painters and sculptors on the payroll of monarchists.
Many pretend that prophets are muscular figures speaking eloquently as the masses listen intently.
From my experience, that is rarely where the prophetic voice is to be heard. Prophets can be broken people. They have thrown themselves upon the gears of the odious machinery and been battered, bruised and shredded by it.
People mocked Francis. They ignored him. They dismissed him. But it’s always that way with prophets. And he never gained celebrity status or the public accolades of some other lefty “public intellectuals” that he more than deserved.
But it was he who saw the scope of the coming Israeli crimes for years in Gaza.
It was he who urged for decades that some country invoke the Genocide Convention against Israel, which South Africa finally did in late 2023.
It was he who emphasized that the next step in that process was for the General Assembly to vigorously use Uniting for Peace, desperately needs to happen.
It was he who wrote the US implementing legislation of the Biological Weapons Convention and warned of outbreaks like Covid.
It was he who warned of a “carve up agenda” for Syria, a version of which we see being enacted now.
I recall he warned about the power of the Federalist Society, which now dominates the Supreme Court, many years before it was fashionable.
That’s just some of it.
Over the years, I probably featured him on more accuracy.org news releases than anyone else. They could be a book now, a radical history of the last few decades. He was always at the ready.
Lord knows, I didn’t always agree with him, I recalled he was at least tacitly for the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, something he’d later dispute, but I’m pretty sure about my memory on that one.
I appeared with him on Fox News just after 9/11 as they cut my mic and he made a case for some member of congress to try to stop the impending diabolical madness. And I was on with him on CodePink’s radio program about the Genocide Convention almost a year ago.
He lived up to his obligation of capacity.
He was also a proud Irishman:
I told you from the get-go you can’t trust Biden. He sold out us Irish twice — his own People — to the Brits in order to feather his own presidential prospects nests twice by being able to claim that he was being tough on terrorism. That is explained in my book United Ireland, Human Rights and International Law.
I never met his family, but I’ve gotten to know his brother Jerry, who is also a lawyer who does movement work.
Many of his books are available via Clarity Press.
I have a conflict of interest in writing this piece. Francis told me — it would be a Herculean task to find the emails now — that he would be my lawyer at the Pearly Gates since I’ve been something of a Gnostic, rather ecumenical and non-conformist in my Christianity.
RIP.
Thank you for this fitting tribute to FAB (as he signed his emails). He was indeed fab, and one of a kind. I miss his wise presence in our midst.
Oh, this is sad. I didn't even know Francis passed---indeed, a much better Francis.