Toward a New Paradigm of Peacemaking
A Call to Reflection and Action
Pentecost 2002

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were gathered in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house....Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire which parted and came to rest on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.  (Acts 2: 1-4)

Since “A Catholic Community Responds to the War: Living with Faith and Hope” was issued in December 2001, more than 4500 persons have endorsed its call for a peaceful end to terrorism and a new Catholic paradigm to replace the Just War Theory. 

In the statement we

  • named the war in Afghanistan “unjust,” urged an immediate end to the war, and opposed any new theater of military action;

  • called for an appropriate international tribunal to address crimes against humanity like those perpetrated on September 11th  and

  • insisted upon the immediate and active engagement by the United States and the international community in accomplishing a just and sustained resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

We also joined with the U.S. Catholic bishops in calling for significant other changes in U.S. foreign policy, including an immediate end to the sanctions in Iraq; serious attention to the “scandal of poverty” at home and abroad; strengthening the U.S. commitment to the promotion of human rights; reversing the prominent role of the U.S. in the international arms trade and in the growing spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons; and strengthening international institutions such as the United Nations.

In the intervening time, these urgent concerns have not been addressed in any significant way and continue to aggravate the conditions that lead to deepening  poverty, exclusion and further violence.  Indeed, the “war on terrorism” has expanded with dire consequences.

  • The Bush Administration has escalated this war as U.S. troops moved into the Philippines, preparations continued to expand the war into Iraq, and efforts were made toward greater involvement in the war in Colombia. 

  • We have witnessed the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine, where both sides live under fear and terror whether it is the terror of military occupation or the terror of unknown suicide bombers.  We have seen the U.S. fuel the conflict with military aid to Israel, thus escalating state terrorism, and fail to contribute in a determined way to a just resolution. At the same time, Israeli leadership justified its inhumane attacks on Palestinian towns using the same rationale as our country’s “war on terrorism.”

  • We have observed with horror a whole new debate emerge around the development and possible use of tactical nuclear weapons and watched the projected military budget for 2003 grow to a staggering $370 billion.  

  • We have seen our country’s lack of any real commitment to the eradication of poverty and exclusion and no serious steps toward righting injustices imbedded in the global economy.

  • We have seen the U.S. act  repeatedly in isolation, abrogating treaties and ignoring multilateral agreements.

  • We have perceived at least one small, hopeful sign in the establishment of the International Criminal Court despite U.S. objections, but its mandate excludes terrorism and crimes committed prior to July 1, 2002.                 

Indeed, the “war on terrorism” has unleashed a pattern of unconscionable decisions and actions by the U.S. and other nations that violate basic human rights and threaten irreparable harm to the planet.

In our December statement we issued a call for a new paradigm to replace the Just War Theory.  We believe now as we did then that leaders in the Catholic community must promote, explore and lead the way along every possible peaceful avenue to conflict resolution and the achievement of justice for all. 

As Catholic religious congregations and organizations serving Catholic constituencies, we feel called by all that we believe and by the gravity of this moment in history to read with care the signs of these times and to act in a manner explicitly informed by the Gospel we proclaim.

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. (Luke 6)

When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go first to be reconciled to your brother or sister and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5)

This is the Word by which we are called.  As Christians we must live it and proclaim it in the public arena. 

With great urgency, then, we invite you, our sisters and brothers in faith, to enter with intention into a period of discernment, including education to identify root causes and reflection in the light of the Gospel that moves us to action, in this season of Pentecost.

The fundamental posture we would like to propose for this discernment rests in two dramatic moments in human history separated by centuries but bound together by the Spirit that gives life.  The first was on Pentecost in Jerusalem, just weeks after the death and resurrection of Jesus, when people from every nation were astounded to hear a message of peace spoken in their own languages, transcending difference and division to infuse them with hope.  The second was in the intense and poignant scramble for life in the rubble of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in the wreckage of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.  There, the color of skin, nationality, language, title, level of income, gender mattered not at all.  Each life was precious; each person, beloved.  Like the early Christians, what we learned so dramatically in those terrible moments was the value of caring for one another, of accompaniment, of solidaridad. In both moments, the lines that so often divide human beings from each other disappeared.

With this in mind, we call on our sisters and brothers in faith to a reexamination of what is most precious to the project of life, to the human journey in this world:

  • What are the essential values of our faith? 

  • Do the priorities of our lives and of this nation match these values?

  • What has gone wrong to bring about so much hatred, so much violence, especially violence against the innocent?

The crisis in our nation ... strikes deeply into the heart of all that identifies who we are and where we are going as a people.  Our structures, values, habits and assumptions require basic transformation.  But neither politics nor piety as we know them will effect such a change.  The crisis of our times cries out for our conversion.  At such a time as this we as a people of faith must remember who we are and to whom we belong.  (“On the Way:  From Kairos to Jubilee” A reflection of Christians in the United States,  1994) 

In response to this crisis and invitation to conversion, then, we call on our sisters and brothers in faith

  • to educate ourselves and our communities about the underlying causes of the attacks on September 11 and the tragic events that have followed, listening especially to the voices of marginalized and oppressed peoples;

  • to examine our consciences and the conscience of this nation about the role we have played in bringing about these violent events;

  • to ask ourselves what we can do to address these causes and the role of our nation, particularly as a people rooted in a gospel faith.

We call on our sisters and brothers in faith to enter an urgent and deep search for alternatives to war – for the spiritual, psychic and political space to envision and make real the “other way” to which we are called to bear witness.

Recalling the prophetic witness brought about by the Pentecost event:

  • We will go forth and proclaim this gospel message to our communities -- in parishes, schools, community groups, the media, before policy-makers - wherever we can make our voices heard;

  • We will oppose war as a means to address the crises brought about by injustice, deeply rooted and unresolved historic grievances, religious, ethnic and racial intolerance, or in defense of the economic and geopolitical interests of the United States;

  • We will publicly support efforts, such as creation of the International Criminal Court, that would create accountable international mechanisms to address the problem of terrorism, with a focus on bringing perpetrators to justice, rather than bringing nations and peoples to war.

All that we have written here is directed toward articulating principles that could form a new paradigm for peacemaking to replace the Just War Theory. We invite you to join with us on this journey.  In our own discussions we have suggested that a fitting place to begin would be with the total rejection of war as a means to solve international conflicts.

We hope that the fruit of this common discernment will begin to incarnate those principles in the actions we take now to oppose war and to bring about conversion in our communities, moving our world toward peace and “renewing the face of the earth.”  

 

Catholics for a Peaceful End to Terrorism
P.O. Box 16  ¨  Cardinal Station  ¨  Washington DC  20064

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