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Posted Wednesday Aug. 25, 2006 at 2:46 p.m. CDT
Catholic peace group leaders say protests not helping terrorists
'Our mission is to get past the message of fear'
'We have to say that the war is illegal, immoral and unjust'
By AGOSTINO BONO
Catholic News Service
Washington
Leaders of Catholic peace groups bristle when asked if their opposition to the Iraq War and their criticisms of the Bush administration's war on terrorism are harming efforts to keep the U.S. safe.
Saying that protesters help terrorists is a "bogus assertion," said Dave Robinson, executive director of Pax Christi USA.
Pacifism is way of living, not a tactic, says Berrigan
 | | Fr. Berrigan |
"I don't like being pessimistic but it's the first time in my long life I feel like a person without a country," Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan told Catholic News Service in a recent interview. He criticized the U.S. military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq and American support of Israel in its conflict with the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
"It's all the wrong moves on the part of a superpower to guarantee its own demise," he said.
For Berrigan, 85, the only answer is nonviolence. His uncompromising stance, he said, is grounded in his faith.
"I can't justify [war] and follow Christ. ... We are told in unmistakable terms by Jesus to love your enemies, and to do good. (Jesus told) Peter, 'Put up your sword,' " Berrigan said.
Discussion of just war theory, even from a Catholic perspective, he said, is "a wanton waste of time and also by implication a sign that the person so talking has closed the Gospel. Or burned it," he said.
He said the weeks immediately following the terrorist attacks on the United States were a "time when we could have been reaching out to despairing people across the globe, and [declaring] a new policy based on our common humanity and common anguish after 9/11. We could have started a torrent of affection, which was all there after 9/11, but we quickly destroyed it. Instead of capitalizing on that and following through, we decided to obliterate an enemy we can't find."
Asked for ideas of how the U.S. might combat terrorism without resorting to violence, Berrigan responded that pacifism cannot be a matter of strategy.
"It's a matter of a way of living, which is recommended to us Christians in the Gospel. The nonviolence of Jesus didn't work for Jesus. It got him killed. So it wasn't a tactic, it was a way of being godly in the world, which is to say being beautifully human," he said.
—Benedicta Cipolla, Catholic News Service
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Accusing protesters of helping the enemy "is always used in wartime by the war-makers against those who call for government accountability," he said.
Robinson and several other leaders of Catholic peace groups interviewed by Catholic News Service argued that President George W. Bush's approach to fighting terrorism is counterproductive. They said it overemphasizes a military response that fails to deal with the underlying causes that seduce people to become terrorists.
Robinson criticized the label "war on terror" as a "marketing ploy." He preferred the phrase "war against terrorists" to describe what is needed.
"Terrorists employ specific means to cause harm and spread terror among certain people. They have goals — to remove occupation troops, to change policies," he said.
The way to deal with terrorists is to work with other governments to pursue and catch these people and put them on trial, he said.
"Invading Iraq had nothing to do with fighting terrorism. Instead, it created a terrorist magnet," said Robinson.
Judy Coode, communications manager of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, said the war on terror should not be reduced to "swatting mosquitoes."
"The analogy is that terrorists are mosquitoes that spawn in a pond of poverty. The pond has to be drained" to solve the problem, she said.
"Terrorist attacks are a terrible expression of people who have lost hope and who are desperate," said Coode.
"It is impossible to ever end the war on terrorism the way it is waged now, by upgrading military systems," she said. "The occupation (of Iraq) has done nothing except create bad will and a negative outlook for this [U.S.] government," she said.
Sr. Mary Beth Moore, coordinator of Pax Christi Long Island, said the government is using "fear-mongering" to gain support for the Iraq War.
"Our mission is to get past the message of fear. We have to say that the war is illegal, immoral and unjust," said Moore, a Sister of Charity.
Her chapter of Pax Christi operates mostly in the Rockville Centre, N.Y., diocese and regularly organizes or participates in antiwar demonstrations.
Sr. Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, which lobbies Congress on peace and justice issues, said there is a need to overcome a "theology of insecurity" in the war on terrorism.
"Our security is in relationships with others, not isolation," said Campbell, a Sister of Social Service.
"The aim is not to close up clamlike" but to reach out to others, she said.
"Do you feel more secure if you live in a neighborhood where you don't know the people or in a neighborhood where you know the people?" she said.
A November 2005 document by the National Security Council, which advises Bush on security matters, said winning the Iraq War is a vital element in protecting the U.S. from future terrorist attacks.
"The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror," the document said.
"As the terrorists themselves recognize, the outcome in Iraq — success or failure — is critical to the outcome in the broader war on terrorism," it said.
August 30, 2006, National Catholic Reporter |
