|
Voices of Peace
Call to Pope to Truly Preach Gospel of Peacemaking
Ezekiel was repeatedly reminded of his responsibility...
By Bishop Gumbleton and Frank Cordaro and 1250 others
Posted on Apr 18, 2008 |
Email this article
Printer friendly page
|
March 2008
To His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI Most Holy Father:
In your own words, “today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a ‘just war’.” Yet, during your upcoming visit to the United States, you are planning to meet with President George W. Bush, whose empty justifications for the violence in Iraq lead to increasing numbers of dead, injured and displaced people.
Iraqi civilians still endure the “continual slaughter” which you described in your 2007 Easter Sunday address. Shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq, you rightly declared that “there were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war.” You’ve also called attention to the terrible new technologies which cause indiscriminate destruction. Five years later, how much more reason you have to call for an immediate end to this war, and to refuse to meet with the President of the United States until that is accomplished.
If you kneel in grief and outrage before the cross of the tortured Christ, can you offer your blessing to a head of government who excuses the most terrible abuses of human minds and bodies as “legal”? If meet with him you must, then meet as a prophet should - issuing a warning and an invitation to repentance. Courtesy cannot be used as an evasion of our biblical faith.
Ezekiel was repeatedly reminded of his responsibility to admonish those doing evil if he desired to escape sharing in the responsibility for their sins. Shouldn’t any of us who recognize the horror of what is happening in Iraq be condemned if we are silent? You are scheduled to be in Washington, D.C. on the anniversary of your birth.
We feel sure that you will be thinking of the countless children of Iraq who never reached their fifth birthday. In 2005 alone, 122,000 Iraqi children under age five died. There are many, both within the Church and outside of it, who long for your voice to speak for those innocent dead and - face to face with those whose policies denied all respect for their lives - demand that the killing stop.
We are, in faithful hope,
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Archdiocese of Detroit
Kathy Boylan, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
Marie Dennis, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Daniel Berrigan, S.J.
Eda and Mike Uca-Dorn, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
Jackie Hudson, O.P., Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares
Frank Cordaro, Des Moines Catholic Worker
William F Watts, Martin De Porres Catholic Worker
Linda Frank, Women in Black, Tacoma and Northwest Middle East Peace Forum
Johanna Berrigan, House of Grace Catholic Worker
Mary Beth Appel, House of Grace Catholic Worker
Rev. John Dear, S.J.
Bruce Martin Russett, Dean Acheson Professor of International Relations, Yale University; Principal Advisor to the United States Catholic Bishops for The Challenge of Peace (1983)
Bernie White and Linda White, Central Iowa Call to Action, Ames, IA
Leona Mason Heitsch, grandmother, great grandmother, retired teacher, orchardist, and one of thousands of Poets Against The War
Carol A. Leary Belleville, IL Member Fellowship Of Southern Illinois Laity
Patricia Krommer C.S.J., Pax Christi, Los Angeles
J’Ann Schoonmaker Allen, a Catholic wife, mother of six, grandmother of nine, educator, worker in clay, and worker for peace and justice
Victoria L. Endres, Catholic Peace activist, Flagstaff, Arizona
Eileen McGartland, Assistant Director, Deaconess Parish Nurse Ministries, mother of two daughters, St.Louis, MO
Sr. Miriam Terese Sheehan, S.S.S.F
Therese J. Terns, IHM Associate, IHM Peacemakers, Pax Christi and Call To Action
Rev. Alice de V. Perry, Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, Board of Directors, National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Tony Fadale, Archdiocese of Los Angeles Justice and Peace Commission
S. Joellen Sbrissa, CSJ, Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation, Congregation of St. Joseph
Andrea M. Hildebrandt, St. Leo Parish, Detroit, St. Leo Pax Christi, mother of two pacifist sons, wife of 35 years to pacifist veteran
Terrence W. Tilley, President-elect, Catholic Theological Society of America, Professor of Theology and Chair of the Department, Fordham University
Amy J. Wieleba, Member Call to Action, USA
Rosemary A. Rader, Member, Call To Action
Rosaline Secrest
Steven A. Davis, Mary A. Davis; two more Catholics whose hearts are breaking.
Irene Munoz CHM-Multicultural Ministries
Cornelia A. Sullivan, Pax Christi Boston, MA
Bill McNulty, School of the Americas Watch
© Copyright 2000-2006 by West By Northwest.org
Top of Page
untitled
|
