Catholic Workers Statement to Catholic Bishops-Calling for an Immediate End to the U.S. War on Iraq!

international | anti-war / imperialism | press release Thursday October 26, 2006 08:03 by Dorothy's Kidz

"Comfort the Afflicted, Afflict the Comfortable!" Dorothy Day

The past weekend saw 300 Catholic Workers, from 50 CW house across the U.S. gather in Iowa. They were also joined by CW's from Germany & Holland. They released the following statement. Two of those present will travel to Ireland & join the anti-war demonstration at Shannon Airport this Sat. Oct 28th.

CATHOLIC WORKERS APPEAL TO BISHOPS TO CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE END TO THE
U.S.WAR IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN AND FOR THE ERADICATION OF THE
MILITARY COMMISIONS ACT

At the conclusion of National Catholic Worker Gathering, held from
October 19-22 in Panora, Iowa, Catholic Workers from across the U.S.
issued a statement appealing to the U.S. Catholic Bishops to break
their silence and to call for an immediate end to the U.S. War in Iraq
and Afghanistan. They also called on the Bishops to call for the
eradication of the recently passed Military Commissions Act which
allows for the indefinite detention for "enemy combatants", the ending
of habeas corpus right for these prisoners, and the use of abusive
interrogation methods which clearly constitute torture.

Over 300 Catholic Workers from over fifty houses, including from
Germany and Holland, attended the Catholic Worker Gathering. The
Catholic Worker was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933,
and the late John Cardinal O'Connor initiated a process in the
catholic Church for her sainthood.

Declaring that torture and war are sins, the group called on the U.S.
Catholic Bishops to do the following:

• call for an end to the U.S. practice of torture.
• call for an immediate end to the U.S. war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• offer counsel to and support for conscientious objectors.
• call for the closing of Guantanamo and all secret military prisons
and torture centers.
• call on all Catholics and people of faith to engage in prayer,
fasting and acts of nonviolent resistance to stop torture and to end
the war.

The group also called on Catholics and other people of goodwill to
join them for a nonviolent action in Washington, DC on January 11,
2007, the 5th anniversary of the first prisoners arriving at
Guantanamo, to call for its closing.

Below is the entire text of two statements the group released-- one is
a short statement and the other a longer version of that statement.

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Catholic Worker Statement issued to the U.S. Catholic Bishop's on the
Military Commissions Act and the War in Iraq and Afghanistan

We Catholic Workers are outraged at the recent passage of the Military
Commissions Act which subjects non-citizens, including legal residents
of the US and foreign citizens living in their own countries, to
summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The
Act allows abusive interrogation methods which clearly violates the
Geneva Conventions, strips prisoners of habeas corpus rights, and
provides immunity to the torturers.

We believe that torture is a sin.

We believe that war is a sin.

We call on the church leadership to break its silence and demand the
eradication of the Military Commission's Act. We appeal to the
Bishops to:

• call for an end to the US practice of torture.

• call for an immediate end to the US war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• offer counsel to and support for conscientious objectors.

• call for the closing of Guantanamo and all secret military prisons
and torture centers.

• call on all Catholics and people of faith to engage in prayer,
fasting and acts of nonviolent resistance to stop torture and to end
the war.

We invite all people of faith and goodwill to join with many of us for
a nonviolent action in Washington, DC on January 11, 2007, the 5th
anniversary of the first prisoners arriving at Guantanamo, to call for
its closing.

CATHOLIC WORKER STATEMENT TO U.S. CATHOLIC BISHOPS
(Longer Version)

We are Catholic Workers from across the US and Europe who have come to
Iowa to celebrate special anniversaries of a number of our houses, to
pray and reflect about what God calls us to at this critical moment in
history, and to recommit ourselves to the Catholic Worker vision of
creating a new society in the shell of the old.

In our various communities we have daily contact with the victims of
our society. Thus, we strive to do the works of mercy and to follow
Jesus' command to be nonviolent witnesses for peace and justice. As we
confront the unrelenting violence and assaults on human life and our
endangered earth, we repent for our own complicity in our culture of
violence, and call on our church and all people of faith and goodwill
to do the same. Taking the Sermon on the Mount as our Christian
manifesto, we commit ourselves to upholding the sacredness of all life
wherever it is threatened.

As a world community, we find ourselves in a complex and dangerous
moral crisis. Longstanding cultural compulsions have obscured the
basic teachings of Christ. We have become the wealthiest nation on
earth in the history of humankind and the price we have paid is the
collective loss of our souls. The ongoing efforts of militarization
and exploitation of global resources have pushed us to a level of
accepting the unacceptable. Pre-emptive war and the slaughter of
innocents is being carried out in our names and for profit. A creeping
apathy has allowed room for extreme abuses such as torture and the
destruction of whole social fabrics. We are violating our own
spiritual principles and civil laws to attain excessive creature
comforts while others suffer from unimaginable deprivation and
violence. We are a living a lifestyle that demands war and distracts
from our true calling of loving and caring for one another. Our path
to redemption lies in the repudiation of domination and embracing the
daily need of service to the vulnerable.

The teaching of Saint Paul tells us that when the health of one member
of our community is suffering, the health of the whole body is
lowered. We must make this time of crisis into an opportunity to move
forward and carry on Christ's message without compromise. In the face
of nuclear capabilities we have no other choice. God, the victims, and
timeless prophetic voices call on us, the Church, the body of Christ,
to repent from the sins of war, torture, and killing, from the making
of widows and orphans, and from the fruitless works of darkness
resulting in this last century being the bloodiest on record.

We as Christians recognize that the Christ, whom we worship, was
himself a victim of torture. We are called to end his ongoing
crucifixion which has been made manifest in our nations policies. This
is particularly relevant in the latest Military Commissions Act of
2006. It is with burning sorrow that we look around at the world in
which we live at the suffering, war, torture, and killing of our
brothers and sisters, and realize that the response of both ourselves
and our Church has been wholly inadequate. We cry out to be part of a
Church that prays and works for peace, loves our enemies, and embraces
the redemptive power of forgiveness. We cry out for a church that
speaks without fear of consequences, including loss of revenues.

We understand that we live in a time of great fear and peril. We need
to remind ourselves that we are not to fear those that can kill the
body, but instead to fear those that can kill the soul. Our domestic
and foreign policies have left us a nation without a soul.

We call on our Church to be a prophetic voice, a sanctuary, and a
source of encouragement to those who want to work together in
community towards peace and justice. To this we recommend:

•Prayer, fasting, vigiling and nonviolent civil resistance to end the
military occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

•That all soldiers refuse to participate in these wars

•That the Church actively support and encourage all conscientious
objectors

•That all U.S. military and private contractors to refuse to engage in
torture

•The closing of Guantanamo and other secret U.S. military prisons

•The eradication of the Military Commissions Act 2006

•Redirect our resources from war making and exploitation to meeting
human needs and saving our planet

•An equitable redistribution of resources by simplifying our
materialistic lifestyle

•All people of faith and goodwill join us for a nonviolent action in
Washington, DC on January 11, 2007, the 5th anniversary of the first
prisoners arriving at Guantanamo, to call for its closing.

As we approach this season of Advent and Christmas, let us be people
of Light. "The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not
overcome it" (John 1:5).

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