All Life Is Sacred

April 16, 2003

Statement of Catholics for a Peaceful End to War and Terrorism

In the weeks since the US initiated the war in Iraq, we have witnessed once again the death and destruction suffered by peoples made to endure the violence of war. As religious leaders and representatives of many organizations and religious congregations, we addressed our nation and people at the start of this war to remind them that our own church leaders had characterized this war as unjust and immoral.

We echo once again the words of Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls on March 18 when he proclaimed:

Whoever decides that all the peaceful means made available under international law are exhausted assumes a grave responsibility before God, his conscience and history.

We said then that, “All life is sacred, and we mourn the loss of any life – Iraqi or American, civilian or military.”

In these past weeks, we have witnessed scenes of tremendous violence and human suffering on our TV screens, on the Internet, and in our newspapers brought about by this war. We have seen the bodies of many victims, innocent civilians, sometimes entire families, killed by bombs, shot at military checkpoints, or in the crossfire of battle. We have seen homes destroyed, cities left without electricity, water, and telephones, thousands of people uprooted from their homes. We have seen hospitals damaged by bombs and ransacked by looters. We have heard doctors and nurses lament that they are overwhelmed with wounded and no longer have the medicines, equipment or bed space to deal with the victims. We have seen the photos and heard the stories from the National Museum of Iraq as looters robbed and destroyed the cultural heritage of Iraq and, indeed, the cultural roots of our own history.

Sadly, we have also heard our national leaders -- those who against the will of the international community decided to perpetrate this war – announce that they are not responsible or accountable for this destruction. We have heard them proclaim that there will be no body count, no accounting for casualties, nor an acceptance of responsibility for the collapse of social order and the chaos that has resulted from this war.

As people of a gospel faith, we cannot keep silent before these many atrocities, before the suffering of the Iraqi people who are our sisters and brothers. Nor can we be silent as our government leaders attempt to keep from us the truth about the human costs of this war.

The gospel tells us that we must embrace truth, love our enemies, feed the hungry, care for the wounded ones on the side of the road, take responsibility for our actions and their motivations. The United States must accept its “grave responsibility before God, [its] conscience, and history” by taking responsibility for the chain of events sparked by its decision to go to war. We cannot escape that responsibility. We must hear the cries of the suffering people of Iraq!

We therefore call upon our government leaders to:

• stop the war in Iraq immediately;

• account for the casualties, both civilian and military, caused by this war, including allowing free access to human rights, humanitarian and other non-governmental organizations seeking to carry out this accounting;

• take responsibility for the social chaos caused by the war as well as the destruction to Iraq’s infrastructure, and do everything possible to restore electricity, water systems, telephone systems, hospitals and other health care delivery systems, and to protect the population and the country’s resources from the destruction of looting and vengeance;

• turn over humanitarian aid efforts in Iraq to the United Nations and/or other international agencies;

• repudiate the immoral and dangerous policy of “pre-emptive war;”

• begin immediately to clean up the lethal aftermath of our munitions, including depleted uranium, unexploded bomblets from cluster bombs, and all other toxic or dangerous materials that pose a future threat to the Iraqi people.

We also urge the United Nations to convoke an emergency Security Council session to immediately lift the 12-year-old economic sanctions which have caused untold suffering to the Iraqi people, and to help develop plans, in consultation with Iraqis, for the future of Iraq.

As we assess the damage caused by this war – to the Iraqi people, to the Arab world, to the reputation of the US in the international community, to the hopes of addressing the root causes of terrorism that afflicts our world and threatens our own people here in the US, to the United Nations and other international alliances and organizations – we call upon the community of faith and the citizens of this country to reassess the role of the United States in the world. Are we a force for good, for justice and peace?

In this Holy Week, we are reminded that our faith begins at the foot of the cross. There we see before us the Suffering One, the victim of the violence that continues to plague our world.

But we also see something else. From this cross comes the hope for life. This hopes rests on the faith and effort of those willing to go to the foot of the cross, to see the victims and what put them there, and to do all we can to bring them down from the cross.

This is our Holy Week faith, our resurrection hope

See Endorsers of All LIfe is Sacredstatement
(available in pdf format only).