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
Living with Faith and Hope One Year
After September 11
On September 11, 2001, our people suffered
an unprecedented attack on our nation that left us deeply shaken.
One year later, our hearts go out to the families and friends
of those who died. We share the grief and fear of our fellow
citizens, and of all peoples throughout the world, as we confront
an uncertain future together. Anniversaries are times to gather
and remember, to pause and reflect, and to reclaim the hopes
and dreams we all have for a peaceful tomorrow based on true
justice and reconciliation.
We speak as Catholics seeking a peaceful
end to both war and terrorism. We speak today, not as religious
leaders, though many of us are; but rather 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," those who are most at risk
in this moment because of the way in which our government is
conducting "the war against terrorism."
We continue to be deeply inspired by
the witness of so many family members of the victims who died
September 11, some of whom traveled to Afghanistan and met with
mothers, fathers and children who lost loved ones during the
U.S. bombing campaign. Several of these family members have
joined together in "Peaceful Tomorrows" (www.peacefultomorrows.org)
to say that their grief is not a cry for war, and to urge our
government to pursue a more peaceful course of action in bringing
to justice those responsible for the heinous crimes committed
against their loved ones one year ago today.
We also offer a word of gratitude to
our sisters and brothers from around the world who have expressed
their words of comfort and support, their understanding and
empathy during this past year. To your expressions of solidarity
we offer our own, for we are united in our suffering, but also
in our hope that there is another way, another path, a new vision
of peace that can be created out of our solidarity with one
another. War is not the answer to terrorism; instead, it risks
plunging the world into a deeper spiral of violence that threatens
the survival and security of present and future generations.
In the hours, days and weeks following
the September 11 attacks, we also witnessed the profound courage
and generosity of rescue workers and volunteers who came to
the aid of the victims, several hundred of whom perished in
their attempts to save lives. We believe that these precious
acts of love and generosity, of identification with the suffering
of the victims, offer our best hope for forging another way
out of the spiral of violence. We must not lose this awesome
potential for human solidarity.
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. The painful task of
binding up the wounds, calming fears, and seeking a new, less
violent path in history is a challenge that requires all of
us to declare our loyalty to the entire human family, even when
wars and global economic policies pit our nation against other
nations, and our people against other peoples.
As Catholics, we have joined with the
U.S. Catholic bishops in calling for significant changes in
U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of September 11, including:
a new definition of security based on interdependence and cooperation;
an end to the deadly use of sanctions against innocent people
in Iraq, and the determination to negotiate a peaceful solution
to our concern about their production of weapons of mass destruction;
a call for an end to both the Israeli occupation and terrorist
bombings, leading to the creation of a Palestinian state and
security for Israel within its borders; a sustained commitment
of support to rebuild Afghanistan; a reversal of the U.S. predominant
role in the international arms trade as well as in the growing
proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons; a
greater commitment to promote human rights at home and abroad;
and a greater effort to address the growing scandal of poverty
that puts at risk the children of the world.
Since September 11, 2001, these urgent
concerns have not been addressed by our government in a way
that generates hope for the future. On the contrary, actions
by our government continue to raise concern and to aggravate
the conditions that lead to further violence, war, a deepening
poverty and exclusion of the poor from a global economy. Indeed,
the "war on terrorism" has expanded, with dire consequences
to the peace and security of all peoples.
Today we are faced with the real prospect
of war against Iraq, escalating violence in the Middle East
with no end in sight, chaos and violence in Afghanistan, enormous
increases in military expenditures that threaten the stability
of the world, increasing willingness of our government to ignore
international law and the United Nations, erosion of our commitment
to defend human rights abroad and civil liberties at home, and
a growing gap between rich and poor throughout the world and
within nations.
The dire warning of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. is more relevant today than ever: "We as a nation
must undergo a radical revolution of values.... that will cause
us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past
and present policies.... A true revolution of values will soon
look uneasily at the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth....
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent
co-annihilation." And we find ourselves challenged by his
prediction that "any nation that spends more on its military
than on programs of social uplift is rapidly approaching spiritual
death."
Toward a New Paradigm for Peacemaking:
War Is Not the Answer
Our world stands on the brink of war
and peace. What was true before September 11, 2001 is even truer
today. We are faced with life and death choices. We have come
to recognize, in the words of Martin Luther King, "that
wars are poor chisels for crafting peaceful tomorrows."
Either we continue on a course of action that threatens to lead
the world deeper into war, or we begin to imagine a new vision
of peace and forge a more hopeful path into a common future.
Without that vision and commitment to peace, we shall surely
perish.
Violence, rooted in injustice and historic
animosities, threatens to overwhelm us, and it manifests itself
in many ways: the violence of terrorist attacks, the violence
of racial and ethnic hatred, the violence of war fought with
weapons that massacre civilians, the violence of repressive
regimes, violence rooted in hopeless poverty, hunger, disease
and misery. And the rationale for such violence comes in many
forms: religion, racial superiority, national security and anti-terrorism,
and the logic of corporate globalization.
Our faith does not allow us to be silent
before such a defining moment in history. Rather, it sheds light
on our situation, and points us in the direction we need to
go. As Catholics, we affirm the challenge and responsibility
of "scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting
them in the light of the Gospel."
We are all children of God, irrespective
of our faith tradition. As Catholics, we look to the tradition
of our church to find another view of human history than that
which is offered by our secular traditions. For the church,
the starting point is not the powerful and the victorious. For
the church, the starting point is Jesus Christ and the victims
of violence and injustice.
For the church, the starting point for
understanding history is the dignity of every person and the
common good of all humanity. Whatever diminishes our common
life on this earth must be challenged. The church therefore
defends and promotes life, and condemns any action that endangers
present or future generations, or the future of our planet.
Terrorism and war, national security states and global capitalism
must be judged in this light.
It is in this spirit that we wish to
speak, heart to heart, to the people of God, to the peoples
of the world, and especially to those who bear the heavy burden
of pain and grief throughout the world as the spiral of violence
continues its deadly course since September 11, 2001.
On this anniversary of September 11,
our first word is addressed to those who died at the World Trade
Center, the Pentagon, and the crash site in Pennsylvania, to
the victims and to their cherished loved ones who come from
many diverse families, cultures and walks of life. We want to
ensure that these dead have not died in vain, that this horrible
loss of life and the grief of tens of thousands of loved ones
be heard across the globe. Justice demands that the perpetrators
of terror be held to account, but a vicious crime that took
the lives of more than 3,000 people from dozens of countries
should be prosecuted under international law, not avenged by
war. For that very reason, we support international cooperation
rather than the present course of unilateralism, and we call
on our government to rejoin the International Criminal Court
in the Hague.
We grieve over the dead in Afghanistan,
especially the many - and the number may approach the number
killed on September 11, we will never know for sure - who were
killed during the U.S. bombing campaign that began last October
7, with civilian casualties as recently as a few weeks ago.
Their lives are also precious. Our cry of grief is not a cry
for war, as many family members of the victims of September
11 have also insisted. It should not be used to
inflict further pain on others. We must be committed to rebuilding
Afghanistan over the next several years and to supporting a
United Nations Peacekeeping Force to ensure the peace.
Our hearts also go out to both Israeli
and Palestinian families in the Middle East, as they are locked
in a deadly cycle of violent occupation and terrorist bombings,
while our own government disengages and - by silence or design
- allows the bloodshed and slaughter to continue. The ties that
lock these two peoples in mortal combat are also ties that can
bind them to a common and peaceful future, based on the creation
of a Palestinian state and the security of Israel. Constructive
engagement by our government of both sides, not turning a blind
eye to the destruction, is the only hope for peace.
The Iraqi people have suffered years
of authoritarian rule and bloody war. Their suffering has been
compounded by more than a decade of U.S. bombing and U.N. economic
sanctions that have caused more than a million deaths, half
of them children. We cannot condone our government initiating
a war with Iraq, knowing that the cost in lives and suffering
would be enormous, and 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,
and a lifting of the sanctions, in order to negotiate the return
of United Nations weapons inspectors.
Our hearts also turn to the Indian and
Pakistani peoples, engaged in a nuclear stand-off that threatens
the lives of millions of people on the subcontinent. We must
continue to support constructive diplomacy in the region, as
well as the reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.
And we must insist that our government reduce and eventually
eliminate its own nuclear arsenal, and desist from irresponsible
speculation about using nuclear weapons. We support the U.S.
Catholic bishops in their conviction that deterrence is no longer
a justification for stockpiling nuclear weapons.
Since the Second Vatican Council, Catholic
teaching on war and peace has supported both just war and non-violence,
though increasingly the just war component has been used to
limit the conditions under which war may be undertaken, and
non-violence has moved from simply being an individual option
to being a public-policy option, as well. In any case, both
just war and non-violence in the Catholic tradition share a
presumption against the use of force.
Since September 11, compelling questions
have also arisen: Can an open-ended war on terrorism be won?
Is it the last resort? Can it be pursued without numerous civilian
deaths and without causing more suffering than it attempts to
prevent? By deepening the spiral of violence, does it not, in
fact, threaten the peace and security of our own and other nations?
Will the "war on terrorism" turn into the very thing
it purports to destroy, namely terrorism itself.
We are Catholics committed to a peaceful
end to both war and terrorism. We cannot turn a blind eye to
either, justifying war as the only way to fight terrorism, or
excusing terrorism because of real injustices. For that reason,
we make our own the words of Pope John Paul II who has prophetically
denounced both war and terrorism: "Those who kill by acts
of terrorism actually despair of humanity, of life, of the future,"
the pope says. "Terrorists hold that the truth in which
they believe or the suffering that they have undergone are so
absolute that their reaction in destroying even innocent lives
is justified." But neither is war the response: "War
is a defeat for humanity."
Another Way Is Possible Based
on Solidarity and Hope
Our world is very vulnerable in this
moment of history. Indiscriminate violence, the immoral marketing
of arms, acts of terrorism unheard of in the past and a pervasive
ideology of war as a means of resolving conflict all seem to
be tearing apart the fragile tapestry of our global community.
The small, but significant steps toward peace through international
dialogue and multilateral negotiations are being overshadowed
by a new outbreak of unilateralism. The advances made in recent
years towards reducing the threat of nuclear war seem to be
disintegrating. Some speak of taking the war game into space.
We are growing perilously accustomed to acts of
war and to the phrase, "a war on terrorism."
Since September 11, many of us living
in the United States still wake up in the middle of the night
to nightmares filled with billowing smoke, burning buildings
and the cries of innocent children. We share those nightmares
with displaced families in Afghanistan, sick and hungry children
in Iraq, the permanently maimed in Rwanda, Burundi and 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 and those living in refugee camps
in Palestine. 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.
We do not claim to have the answers
to the world's political tensions and problems. We do applaud
all who work sincerely and honestly toward peaceful solutions.
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 wait in silence and in contemplative prayer
as a gesture of healing and reconciliation for our world, and
in memory of those who have died in the acts of terror and war
of this past year.
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 and symbol of non-violent love than the way
of the cross that Jesus proclaims:
Love your enemies, do good to those
who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who
persecute you. (Luke 6)
We believe in the transforming power
of non-violent action, prayer and fasting. We choose to be emptied
of our own violent inclinations, and to feel the pain of hunger
as an act of solidarity with the millions of people in our world
who live the violence of hunger every day of their lives. War
will never be a remedy for the hunger and suffering of our world.
Peace is the only way. We believe in a God of peace. And we
believe that there is another way, and that God will show us
that way if we would only have the emptiness and purity of heart
to listen.
Our world desperately needs to be healed.
And 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. In the words of the Vietnamese
Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, "To prevent the next war, we
have to practice peace today."
With great urgency, we invite our brothers
and sisters in the United States, and around the world, of all
faith traditions, but especially we call on all Catholics, to
enter with intention into a period of discernment during these
days of September, in order to deepen our solidarity with each
other, and to call for a peaceful and definitive end to war
and to terrorism. We cannot afford to leave the fate of present
and future generations to our political leaders alone. We must
hold them accountable for their complicity or silence in the
face of further violence and war. Nor can we afford to leave
the fate of our world in the hands of our religious leaders
alone. We must, as communities of faith from every faith tradition
- claim our mission as the People of God - and take responsibility
for helping to bring about a peaceful tomorrow.
We believe that our God is a God who
promises life, who inspires hope, but 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 as well. 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.
In conclusion, we encourage one another
to consider the following course of actions:
To enter into a period of discernment
and informed debate about the direction that our nation is taking,
and alternatives to war in Iraq (www.epic-usa.org)
To call on our government to refrain
from waging war on Iraq and to lift the economic sanctions against
the Iraqi people (www.paxchristiusa.org)
To sign the Pledge of Resistance, supported
by Pax Christi USA and other peace organizations, and commit
ourselves to non-violent civil disobedience at federal buildings
in the United States should our government invade Iraq (www.paxchristiusa.org)
To respond to the call of Voices in
the Wilderness to be one of hundreds of human shields who would
travel to Iraq in the event that the United States declares
war and invades that country (www.nonviolence.org/vitw)
To join those who are fasting and praying
for peace at the United Nations in New York during an open-ended
fast beginning September 1 (www.dominicanfastforpeace.org)
.
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