| 2008-03-02 | A group of concerned people of many faiths, who support Pope Benedict's public statements in opposition to the Iraq war, are encouraging him to confront President Bush on the matter during the Pope's scheduled April visit to the United States. Their letter to the Pope reads as follows. If you would like your name added, please send it to me in the form that you would like it to appear. Include whatever other forms of identification you deem appropriate, e.g., organization, vocation, position. Also feel free to circulate it to others who might be interested with the instruction to reply to me at stephen.kobasa@gmail.com by March 4. in peace, Stephen Kobasa To His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI Most Holy Father: In your own words, "today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a 'just war'." Yet, during your upcoming visit to the United States, you are planning to meet with President George W. Bush, whose empty justifications for the violence in Iraq lead to increasing numbers of dead, injured and displaced people. Iraqi civilians still endure the "continual slaughter" which you described in your 2007 Easter Sunday address. Shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq, you rightly declared that "there were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war." You've also called attention to the terrible new technologies which cause indiscriminate destruction. Five years later, how much more reason you have to call for an immediate end to this war, and to refuse to meet with the President of the United States until that is accomplished. If you kneel in grief and outrage before the cross of the tortured Christ, can you offer your blessing to a head of government who excuses the most terrible abuses of human minds and bodies as "legal"? If meet with him you must, then meet as a prophet should - issuing a warning and an invitation to repentance. Courtesy cannot be used as an evasion of our biblical faith. Ezekiel was repeatedly reminded of his responsibility to admonish those doing evil if he desired to escape sharing in the responsibility for their sins. Shouldn't any of us who recognize the horror of what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan be condemned if we are silent? You are scheduled to be in Washington, D.C. on the anniversary of your birth. We feel sure that you will be thinking of the countless children of Iraq who never reached their fifth birthday. In 2005 alone, 122,000 Iraqi children under age five died. There are many, both within the Church and outside of it, who long for your voice to speak for those innocent dead and - face to face with those whose policies denied all respect for their lives - demand that the killing stop. We are, in faithful hope (among the 882 signatures gathered as of March 1) Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Archdiocese of Detroit Kathy Boylan, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Stephen Vincent Kobasa Kathy Kelly Daniel Berrigan, S.J. Dave Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA Marie Dennis, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns Rev. John Dear, S.J. Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy Bruce Martin Russett, Dean Acheson Professor of International Relations, Yale University; Principal Advisor to the United States Catholic Bishops for The Challenge of Peace (1983) Joan Chittister, OSB, Co-Chair, Women's Global Peace Initiative; Co-Chair, Network of Spiritual Progressives Ray McGovern Bill Quigley, Loyola University, New Orleans Msgr. Edward Pfeffer, retd., Diocese of Des Moines Dr. Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, Dept. of political science, Notre Dame University Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Emeritus, Temple Kol Tikvah, Woodland Hills,CA Cynthia Russett, Larned Professor of History, Yale University Harold W. Attridge, Dean, Yale Divinity School Rev. Alice de V. Perry, Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, Board of Directors, National Religious Campaign Against Torture S. Joellen Sbrissa, CSJ, Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation, Congregation of St. Joseph S. Patricia Schlosser, OSF Pio Celestino, Refugio del Rio Grande, Texas, EE.UU. Shelley and Jim Douglass, Mary's House, Birmingham, AL Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, Saints Francis and Therese Catholic Worker, Worcester, Massachusetts Elizabeth Griswold, Harvard Divinity School Sister Karen Nykiel, O.S.B., Illinois State Coordinator, Pax Christi USA Joe Morton, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Goucher College Dr. Aurolyn Luykx, University of Texas at El Paso Fr. Vincent Petersen OFM Conv., San Antonio Catholic Church, El Paso, Texas Fr. Jim Hoffman, OFM, Director, Sacred Heart Province JPIC Office, IL Eileen White, GNSH, for the Grey Nun Social Justice Group Rev. Robert Dueweke, OSA, Theologian Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director, New Ways Ministry Lorraine Lynch Nagy Thomas J. Nagy Tom Cordaro, Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Father Joseph E. Mulligan, S.J., Christian Base Communities of Nicaragua Arthur Laffin, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, D.C. Gabe Huck, Theresa Kubasak, Iraqi Student Project, Damascus, Syria Robert L. Davis, Retired Deputy Asst. Secy., US Department of Labor |
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