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Only
guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things
your eyes saw. And lest these things depart your heart all the days of
your life. And you shall make them known to your children, and to your
children's children. - Deuteronomy 4:9
On this first anniversary of September
11, 2001, we remember the horror of that day; we honor the heroes and
heroines; we renew our support for the survivors and bereaved. But the
challenge before us and the potential of this anniversary is greater even
than those important tasks. For as a nation and as people of faith we have
not yet done enough to probe that wound - to use the painful experience of
national brokenness and vulnerability to ponder the possibilities for the
making of peace – in our own times and for future generations. September
11th remains a watershed event for our nation’s soul, but the
instinct for transformation has not been nurtured.
Now perhaps we are ready – after a
year has passed – to stand in the rubble and to seek another way.
Now perhaps we are ready to ask what seeds were planted on that
horrendous day. In spite of
where we have gone thus far, what new life will we discover as we relive
the trauma and experience again the fear? Can it reshape our way of life
and our relationships with the rest of the world?
This is a time to gather and remember, to pause and reflect, to
reclaim the hopes and dreams of justice and shalom.
We are Catholics seeking a peaceful
end to both war and terrorism. We speak today, not as religious leaders,
though many of us are; but as people of faith who want to join our hearts
to the "joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our
time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted."
As missionary congregations and
communities of faith with relationships on nearly every continent, we are
impelled to view this moment in history from a global perspective.
Inextricable ties and universal values bind our human family together,
whether for our common survival on this planet or for the pursuit of a
more hopeful future.
In particular at this time we lift up
the cries of the Iraqi people, whose long term suffering under
authoritarian regimes and in bloody conflict with neighboring Iran has
been compounded by over a decade of U.S. bombing and U.N. economic
sanctions. In the past eleven
years, according to U.N. estimates, more than a million people
have died, half of them children. We cannot condone the threatened
U.S. war in Iraq; the cost in human life and suffering would be enormous -
the possibility of destabilizing the entire Middle East region, almost
certain. We support the wisdom of experienced voices that call for a
policy of containment, lifting of the sanctions, and negotiations for the
return of United Nations weapons inspectors. We reject the manipulated and
truncated debate that is leading inexorably to war.
As people of faith we cannot be silent.
A preemptive war on Iraq would be illegal and immoral.
We are also concerned about the
escalating conflict between Israelis and Palestinians -
which war in Iraq would inevitably intensify; chaos and violence in
Afghanistan; enormous increases in military expenditures; erosion of a
commitment to defend human rights abroad and civil liberties at home; and
an ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor throughout the world.
Indeed, we are faced with life and death choices. Violence, rooted in
injustice and historic animosities, threatens to overwhelm us.
War is on the verge of circling the globe. And its rationale comes
in many forms: religious fundamentalism of every kind, a presumption of
racial and ethnic superiority, the pursuit of a false national security,
corporate and personal greed, and even anti-terrorist activities.
On September 11 we were awakened as a
nation to the terror of billowing smoke, burning buildings and the cries
of innocent children. Our pain and grief opened us to the terror
experienced by displaced families in Afghanistan, sick and hungry children
in Iraq, the permanently maimed in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, the prospect of millions starving or dying from
AIDS in Africa, peasants in war-torn Colombia, school children in Northern
Ireland, people riding buses in Israel, Palestinians living in the
occupied territories, poor and marginalized communities in our own country
- and the list goes on. War destroys the human heart and desecrates the
sacred earth that is our common home.
There must be another way.
Indeed, in the past year, we have come
to recognize again, "that wars are poor chisels for carving out
peaceful tomorrows." (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Either we continue on a course of action that threatens to lead the
world deeper into war, or we begin to develop a new vision of peace and
forge a more hopeful path into a common future. We applaud all who work
sincerely and honestly toward peaceful solutions, especially family
members of September 11th victims who have formed the
organization Peaceful Tomorrows (www.peacefultomorrows.org).
Our call at this moment is to wait on God, to return to our deepest
center, our Ground Zero, where all beings dwell in the God who is Love.
We are called by our faith in a God of
life and by the gravity of this moment in history to read the signs of
these times and to act in a manner explicitly informed by the Gospel. As
Catholic religious congregations and organizations serving Catholic
constituencies, we believe that there is no greater expression or symbol
of non-violent love than the way of the cross that Jesus proclaimed.
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi,
"Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of humankind. It
is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction." We invite
political and religious leaders to set aside once and for all the words
and weapons of war, and to embark on a path of non-violence that will lead
to lasting world peace.
Ours is a God who promises life, who
inspires hope, a hope that takes root in each of our hearts and encourages
us to offer the best of our prayers and our labors, our compassion and our
solidarity by committing ourselves to the poor, defending the victims of
war, struggling alongside those who are excluded from the benefits of the
global economy. September 11 revealed the mystery and depth of evil and
violence of which human beings are capable; but it also revealed the
mystery and real goodness and generosity of human beings. Those who died
on September 11, and those who have died since in Afghanistan, the Middle
East, Iraq, and countless other places on our planet, lay claim to our
lives. Their dreams and hopes for life must not be extinguished, but
rather, by our actions of solidarity and commitment to justice and peace,
they can illuminate the path before us and generate hope. Life, not death,
will have the last word.
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