“Do Not Forget the Things Your Eyes Saw”

A Letter on the First Anniversary of 
September 11

 Catholics for a Peaceful End to War and Terrorism

 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 11^th 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."[1]

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 11^th 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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    [1] Second Vatican Council, "Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World," 1.